Attendance - Be Here
At Hillside High School we recognise that to achieve our mission statement of achieving ‘Excellence in the heart of the Community’.
Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education. Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any problems if your child does not want to go to school.
Regular school attendance
Good attendance shows post-16 colleges and future potential employers that your child is reliable.
Hillside High school records details of all children’s attendance and absence from school. We do so at the beginning of morning and afternoon sessions. If your child is absent, you must inform the school immediately.
The school will record the absence and the Local Authority will receive this information for each child. The Department of Education also receives annual attendance data for the school.
Your responsibilities as a parent
By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. For most parents, this means registering their child at a school. Although some parents choose to make other arrangements to provide a suitable, full-time education.
Once your child is registered at Hillside High School, the parent is legally responsible for making sure they attend on a regular basis. If your child does not attend school on a regular basis, you could be subject to a fine or be prosecuted in court.
First Day Response / Communication between home and school – daily procedures
If you are unable to attend school your parent/guardian will need to ring the school office on 0151 525 2630 between 7.30-8.30am.The call will be received by one of our admin team who will discuss the reason for your absence.
* Dependant on the reason and your current attendance there will be some challenge as to why you are not able to come to school.
Each day at 9.30 am the pastoral team meet and establish who is absent and the reason why. Please see the escalated days approach below.
Dependant again on your attendance and the reason for your absence the most likely outcome will be a member of the pastoral team visiting your home to discuss how we can get you back into school with as limited time absent as possible.
We are adopting an Escalated Days Approach from September. This will provide pupils and parents clear guidance about the steps we will take to improve attendance at an individual level.
Telephone Numbers
There are times when Hillside will need to contact your parent/guardians for a range of issues, including absence, so it is essential that the school has at least two up to date contact numbers at all times.
Understanding Types of Absences
Every half day absence has to be classified by the school (not by your parent/guardians) as either authorised or unauthorised. Information about the cause of any absence is always required from your parents/guardians, preferably in writing.
Authorised
Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical/ dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, or emergencies.
Unauthorised
Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable. This type of absence can lead to the Local Authority using sanctions and/or legal proceedings. This includes:
- Parents/guardians keeping pupils off unnecessarily.
- Truancy before or during the school day.
- Absences which have never been properly explained.
- Shopping, looking after other children or birthdays.
- Day trips and all holidays in term time.
- Oversleeping.
- Absence to look after a sibling who is unwell.
- Confusion over term dates.
Any problems with regular attendance are best sorted out between school, your parent/guardian and you. If you are reluctant to attend, your parent/guardians should not condone your absence or give in to pressure to excuse you from attending school, they must contact school immediately to discuss.
Medical Evidence
The school reserves the right to insist on medical evidence in order to code any absence as authorised or unauthorised and this decision will be made on an individual basis depending on your current and historic attendance.
Holidays
We do not authorise any holidays during term time. Exceptionally, if you and your family are going on holiday, you must complete a holiday request form which can be obtained from your Progress Leader or Miss Elliott in Attendance. This must be returned to Miss Elliott well in advance of you taking the holiday. The Principal will then decide if the holiday will result in a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) fine.
IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE LAW REGARDING PENALTY NOTICES FOR UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL - MESSAGE FROM SEFTON COUNCIL
A new National Framework for Penalty Notices for school absence, including unauthorised holiday absence, is being introduced following changes to the law. These new Government regulations will come into effect from 19 August 2024, and we wanted to bring this to your attention now, as it will affect when penalty notices are issued in Sefton.
What are the changes?
1. There will be a new national threshold of 10 unauthorised sessions for any reason (equivalent to 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period for when a penalty notice must be considered.
2. The new rules mean you will no longer be able to take your child out of school for one week’s holiday without a penalty notice being issued.
3. There will be an increase in the penalty fine from £60 to £80 if paid in 21 days. If the fine is not paid by the first 21 days, it will rise to £160 if paid within 28 days of being issued.
4. If a second penalty fine is issued to the same parent for the same child within a 3-year rolling period, the fine will automatically rise to £160 with no option to pay the lower rate of £80.
5. If a parent then commits a third offence in a 3-year rolling period, the local authority will need to consider other enforcement options available to them. We would like to thank parents and carers for their support in making sure that children do not miss any learning time. If you have any further question please contact PCN@sefton.gov.uk
Click here to read letter and FAQ
Compulsory Catch - up
To support your progress, if you miss curriculum time, you will be required to complete Compulsory Catch Up to support your learning and reduce any knowledge gaps.
In the event of missing curriculum time, you will have until Friday of the week following your absence to complete any work that was missed, and ensure your teacher has signed it off as complete.
It is your responsibility to identify and complete any work that has been missed. You must present your catch-up sheet to your Form Tutor on the Friday of the week following your absence. If all work has not been completed, you will be required to stay behind where you will be supported by staff to complete your catch-up work.
Be Here Attendance Strategy
Hillside High School has developed the Be Here Strategy, based upon research by the EEF, and the work of Wayne Harris and Prof. Katherine Weare on the importance of Belonging. It is also in line DFE Guidance 2024 – Working together to improve attendance
The emphasis is on developing a school culture and climate which builds a sense of connectedness and belonging to ensure all children can attend school and thrive. The approach ensures we prioritise building solid working relationships with children / parents prior to any escalation. The staged approach we use ensures we identify triggers early that can lead to poor attendance issues such as mental health issues, lack of trust, communication and relationship breakdowns and the possible lack of networking opportunities both internal (in-school) and external (external agencies).
The aims of the Be Here Attendance Strategy.
- Ensuring that staff have a holistic understanding of the needs of pupils and families and are able to diagnose specific needs
- Further developing a culture of community and belonging
- Communicatingeffectively with families
- Further improving the quality of provision for all pupils
- Deliveringtargeted interventions to improve the attendance of identified individuals and groups
Increase attendance and reduce persistent absence by:
We create welcoming environments to allow all children to gain a sense of belonging and ultimately achieve academically through regular school attendance.
The school policy is translated into practise through the processes and systems we follow. The Escalated Days approach supports children at each stage, parents who do not engage with support understand why, at times, we must follow this process.
All staff receive attendance training to support the whole school approach, they understand their role in improving attendance. Certain staff are identified to engage in specialist training to continue to support families and children who work with external partners.
We use data information to support children as this allows us to understand the groups, and individuals, who require specific programmes of intervention. Reviewing each programme allows us to understand the effectiveness of support and change what is not working.
Finally, we train and support all staff to understand the ‘root cause’ of concerns. Staff use the wider curriculum to allow all children to feel valued and accept themselves. We celebrate attendance success and ensure children returning from long absence receive a planned transition.
