The Independent Grammar School: Durham

 ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION POLICY

 This policy has been drawn up with reference to the DfE guidance on school attendance, which can be found at:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/739764/Guidance_on_school_attendance_Sept_2018.pdf

Attendance registers are important legal records.  Registers must be carefully maintained and kept secure at all times.  They should not be left on desks during the day and must be locked in the cabinet in the (locked) school office overnight.  Attendance registers must be completed at the beginning of the school day and during the afternoon session.  In practice, this means, with our current timetable, at 8.30 and 1.00.

Where an entry in an attendance register needs to be changed in any way, it must be changed in accordance with strict, legal, guidelines.  The original information, the new information, the date of change, the reason for change and the status of the person making the change must all be shown clearly.

School inspectors are likely to examine attendance registers and will expect high standards of accuracy, legal compliance and presentation.  Class teachers are responsible for maintaining attendance registers to a good standard.

The register closes in the morning at 8.45 am.  Pupils arriving after that time will be late for school.

Registers will be marked in the following way.

·        If the child is present, the usual / or \ should be used for am/pm.

·        If a child is absent and by 8.45 no explanation has been received, the register should be marked “N” – reason not yet known.  This should be changed as soon as a satisfactory explanation is received (indeed, must be changed) and a note of the change made.

·        In the case of “authorised absence”, the register should be marked “C”

·        In the case of “holiday authorised by the school”, the code is “H”

·        In the case of illness, use “I”

·        For medical or dental appointments, use “M”

·        For “unauthorised absence” the register should be marked “O”

·        For “late” use “U”

·        Where a child is, by agreement with the school, attending part-time (e.g. a pre-Reception child) the code “AA” (agreed absence) should be used for the agreed sessions when the child is not in school.  Absence during other sessions should be marked in accordance with the above.

 If in doubt, ask the Principal for clarification as to the appropriate entry in the register.

 Revised January 2021, January 2023 (Covid-related provisions removed), March 2023

Next Review - March 2025