Regular school attendance helps a child to: - Learn
- Progress
- Establish good habits
- Be supervised and safe
- Prepare for the future
Irregular school attendance:
- May put your child at risk in the community
- Seriously disrupts continuity of learning
- Undermines educational progress
- Leads to underachievement and low attainment
- Reduces likelihood of further education opportunities and training
- Creates a higher risk of unemployment
- Creates a greater risk of being drawn into criminal or anti-social activity
- Parents may be fined up to £2,500* per child if their child's school attendance is unsatisfactory. A parent can be given a prison sentence where non-attendance is condoned.
* excluding costs
The local authority's Education Welfare Service offers specialist support to schools, pupils, parents and other agencies in relation to the attendance and welfare of school pupils.
The service aims to promote achievement by ensuring that all children, through regular and full attendance are in a position to receive the maximum benefit possible from their education.
Each school in South Gloucestershire has a nominated education welfare officer (EWO) who visits regularly to check registers and discuss pupils about whom the school is concerned. If a school has concerns about a young person's attendance they will make an official referral to the EWO. The EWO may then make contact with the young person and their family and draw up an action plan to support an improvement in attendance.
The school pastoral and special needs staff and tutor may contribute to the action plan. Other people may also be involved in this action, like:
- A social worker, if the child is on the Child Protection Register or is a 'looked-after' pupil
- A case officer, if the child is subject to a Statement of Special Educational Needs
- An education psychologist
- A Connexions PA
- A behaviour support teacher if the EWO deems them useful to the process
- Other professionals with a direct interest
If, after a period of intervention, the EWO is unable to engage the young person in education appropriate to their age and ability, the EWO may have to adopt non-attendance proceedings. This process may lead to legal action through either the family courts or magistrates court.