This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Interim Service Manager for the Attendance Team, Farah Malik, for the attention of all schools.
We hope School staff are well and keeping safe.
Please find attached guidance on how schools should be recording pupil attendance. This has been taken from the most recent Government changes to legislation and guidance brought about as a result of a 3rd lockdown since the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The guidance covers on-site attendance for vulnerable and key worker/critical worker’s children, remote learning, as well as daily data for all schools to complete as required by the DfE.
The document also contains an Appendix which has collated links and documents mentioned in the guidance for your reference and ease. Please do spend some time reading some of these key documents as they provide further details to area’s mentioned in the guidance.
One of the key messages which schools have been enquiring about this week is about enforcement- As a quick update, Government have suspended enforcement action through a disapplication notice from 07/01/2021 to 06/02/2021 by virtue of the Coronavirus Act 2020 The specified disapplication notice in this period applies to 07/01/2021 to 06/02/2021.
What does this mean for Schools? Enforcement (issue of penalty notices) has to remain on hold until Government reinstates the legislation to fine parents. We will notify schools once this happens.
I trust the Attendance Guidance will be useful but should you feel there are any further points to address/cover, or any further information to add that would be useful to share with other schools please do not hesitate in contacting me.
With regards to Attendance, please continue to monitor and track attendance of all pupils, should you have any concerns which you are unable to resolve yourselves, please do contact either SCST if it is a safeguarding concern or the Attendance Team. We will endeavour to support you as best as possible.