Attendance

At Ribby with Wrea we believe that attendance is vitally important to a child's progress and happiness at school. Whilst we understand that at times children will be unwell we aim for all children to achieve 100% attendance with 95% being our minimum requirement.

We aim to work closely with families to achieve this.

We will not authorise holiday's in term time but are always available to discuss exceptional circumstances.

Penalty Notices (PNs)

Penalty notices are fines introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 that can be issued to parents by the Local Authority as an alternative to prosecution under s444 Education Act 1996. Paying the fine allows the parent to discharge liability instead of being prosecuted in the Magistrates' Court. If a parent fails to pay the penalty notice, and there are no grounds to withdraw the penalty notice, the parent will be prosecuted for the offence of failing to ensure their child's regular attendance at school.

From 19 August 2024 penalty notices are issued at £160 per parent, per child and must be paid within 28 days. The fine can be paid at a discounted rate of £80 if paid within 21 days.

Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.

A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).

Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds

The deadlines for these amounts are stated on the penalty notice.

All payments are made to the Local Authority. 

Penalty notices can be issued where with governing body approval, the school attendance policy refers to their use with regards to unauthorised absences and unauthorised holidays/leave. 

The threshold for legal intervention is determined by The Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period. This may include absences as a result of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years and a school week is any week in which a school meets at least once.

National Framework and Local Code of Conduct for Penalty Notices

The Department for Education guidance Working together to improve school attendance introduced a national framework for penalty notices alongside the amended penalty notice regulations which provides more guidance on when a penalty notice should be considered and the support that school should explore before resorting to a request for legal intervention.

In line with the national framework, the Local Authority is required to draw up a new code of conduct for issuing penalty notices alongside the new national guidance and this is available to download here. You can view our previous code of conduct which is applicable for absences prior to 19 August 2024 here.

Exclusions

Penalty notices may also be issued in respect of pupils who are in a public place during the first five days of an exclusion.