Attendance & Reporting Absences
At Ashbury Meadow we believe that regular attendance is the key to enabling children to maximise the educational opportunities available to them and become emotionally resilient, confident and competant adults, who can realise their full potential and amake a positive contribution to their community. We are a UNICEF Rights Respecting Gold School and Article 28 states 'Every child has a right to an education'. This can only be achieved when children are regularly attending school.
Ashbury Meadow values all pupils and strives to build strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support needed in place to attend school. We work proactively to engage with families in need of support to ensure pupils can access school, this is also supported by us being able to involve or signpost you to other agencies, who might be able to help break down any barriers you are having to accessing school, so if you ave any difficulties or concerns please make an appointment with our pastoral team via the school office. Where a pupil's attendance is concerning us, we will invite you to engage with us through a contract of attendance, enabling both school and familes to work together to permantly improve attendance.
Our new attendance policy can be found below and it supports the vision and implementation of the revised and now statutory DfE guidance 'working together to improve attendance'.The guidance reflects changes to the law on keeping school attendance and admission registers including a revised set of codes, granting leaves of absence and access to, and sharing of, attendance information introduced through the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.
Procedures for reporting absences
Parents must advise the school before 8.45am by telephone or via the study bugs App or send a text to school comms, on the first day of absence, and each subsequent day and provide the school with an expected date of return. This should be followed up in the form of a written note from the parent/carer, though verbal explanations may be acceptable where this is considered appropriate.
Statutory Changes & National Guidance
The Manchester City Council school attendance webpages have been updated with key guidance, information and advice for schools and parents The importance of regular school attendance | School Attendance Information, Advice and Guidance for 2024-25 | Manchester City Council.
The website contains the updated copy of the revised Manchester City Council ‘Code of Conduct’ which reflects the national changes to statutory action and the implementation of a ‘support first’ approach to school attendance.
All documents support Manchester City Council’s strategic approach to school attendance and reducing persistent and severe absenteeism in 2024-25.
Other useful information to support parents can be found at these links:
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/help-with-getting-your-child-to-go-to-school