School attendance is a key indicator for pupil attainment, wellbeing and future life chances and an important protective measure for vulnerable children. At the end of February, the DfE announced a number of changes to the law relating to pupil registration and attendance.
The changes will come into effect on 19 August 2024 and are set out in new regulations and the DfE guidance Working together to improve school attendance, which will also have statutory force from that date.
The purpose of the updates is to improve pupil attendance, while the guidance acknowledges that the barriers to accessing education are wide and complex. Schools are expected to work collaboratively with pupils and parents to promote attendance and remove any barriers to it.
While no specific attendance benchmark is given, schools are asked to be aspirational in setting attendance expectations for all pupils. At the time of the previous guidance, average national attendance was at around 92%.
Parents are required to ensure that their child receives full-time education, either by daily attendance at a school (when it is open) or otherwise, except in a small number of allowable circumstances, such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.
When the DfE published the last version of the guidance in May 2022 it stated its commitment to make it statutory when parliamentary time allowed. The decision to abandon the Schools Bill, and a number of changes to the government since then has delayed this, but now that the new regulations have been laid and guidance published, all schools will need to implement the new requirements ahead of the 2024/25 school year.
The key changes that apply to independent schools are:
- All schools are expected to have a written school attendance policy based on the expectations set out in the guidance. We have a template policy which is available free of charge to members of the ISBA and will shortly be updated.
- Schools are expected to designate a 'Senior Attendance Champion' - a senior leader with overall responsibility for championing and improving attendance. This does not need to be a stand-alone role and can be combined with other responsibilities.
- Admissions and attendance registers should be kept electronically.
- Attendance and absence of pupils of compulsory and non-compulsory school age should be recorded using appropriate national attendance and absence codes - these have been updated and are set out in the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) (Regulations) 2024.
- Every entry in the school's attendance and admission registers should be preserved for six years (currently three years).
- The new School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) (Regulations) 2024 allow local authorities to examine and take extracts of registers from all schools in their area (this is not limited to maintained schools), but independent schools are not required to share the same level of information about individual pupils as maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, academy schools and AP academies as the new regulations Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 do not apply to the sector.
- Other changes reflect those recently made to non-statutory guidance Providing remote education: guidance for schools and Mental health issues affecting a pupil's attendance: guidance for schools and the need for schools to be mindful of pupils who may be absent from school due to mental or physical ill health, special educational need and/or disability and provide them with additional support.
- Schools are also reminded of the need to provide local authorities with the name and address of pupils who will miss 15 consecutive or cumulative days due to illness who may need additional support from the local authority to continue their education, as set out in the recently updated statutory guidance for local authorities Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school.
If you would like to find out more about this or have an enquiry about updating or reviewing your school's policies, please contact Victoria Guest in our Education team on 0117 314 5375, or complete the form below.