Children Missing Education

All children, regardless of their circumstances, are entitled to a full time education, which is suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. 

The School recognises that a child going missing from education is a potential indicator of abuse or neglect and such children are at risk of being victims of harm, exploitation or radicalisation; it also recognises that prolonged absence could be the result of travelling to conflict zones, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

On the day of a student’s admission, the School enters students onto the admission register.  The School monitors the attendance of students daily using the Management information system. The school also contacts home on the day of any unexplained absence, alerting parents/carers to the absence.  It similarly notifies unexplained lateness after the register has closed.  

If a student fails to attend on the agreed or notified date, the school will undertake reasonable enquiries to establish the child’s whereabouts.  Where there are safety or other concerns, and also in circumstances where a child is being particularly monitored, the school will notify the Local Authority and/or social services of this, depending on the circumstances

Where a pupil has not returned to school for ten days after an authorised absence or is absent from school without authorisation for twenty consecutive school days the pupil can be removed from the admission register after making reasonable enquiries to establish the whereabouts of the child. This can only be applied if the school does not have reasonable grounds to believe that the pupil is unable to attend because of sickness or other acceptable and unavoidable cause.

There is a local authority protocol with regard to the reports and their frequency when the school will provide details of pupils who fail to attend regularly, or have missed ten school days or more without permission.

The school also has an attendance policy to encourage high levels of attendance and punctuality at school and employs the services of an Education Welfare Officer to support in cases where attendance is below expectations.