Service Description: The Law states that parents of a child of compulsory school age must ensure that he/she receives full-time education and if a child fails to attend punctually and regularly then his/her parents are guilty of an offence.
Also known as:- Absences, Fixed Penalty Notices (Education), Parent Prosecution, Truancy
Answer: - Children only get one chance at school. - Good attendance means they have a good chance of keeping up with their work. - 80% or 90% sounds good for an exam result in terms of attendance it is poor. - At KS2 even a 94% attendance would need a whole term to catch up with missed lessons. - During KS3 a 90% attendance will take an extra 12 weeks to catch up. - There is a direct link between attendance and success at GCSEs. - Setting good attendance patterns from an early age will also help your child later on. - Employers want to recruit people who are reliable. So children who have a poor school attendance record may have less chance of getting jobs. Research has shown that some young people who regularly miss school for no good reason may be drawn into anti social behaviour or crime.