Attendance Monitoring Policy

Rationale; It is important that our records of children’s attendance are accurately kept and regularly monitored to ensure that we can identify any potential problems and look for patterns. All managers and staff are alert to signs that children and learners who are missing might be at risk of abuse or neglect, and appropriate action is taken when children and learners stop attending.   We are aware that attendance is not statutory, but that non-attendance could be an indicator of other concerns. We are particularly aware of the need to monitor groups such as children who are in receipt of two year old funding, and those for whom we receive Early Years Pupil Premium, as these groups are considered to be vulnerable learners.

Procedures;

• Children’s attendance is monitored through daily registers. All absences and reasons given for them are recorded.
• Parents are asked to inform us in person, by phone or by text, if their child will not be attending for any reason, as soon as possible. If we are not contacted, we will contact parent, and if that fails will ask parents about absences on the child’s return.
• All absences will be recorded, and frequent absences (75% attendance or less) will be investigated and further action or monitoring considered. We will always discuss our concerns with parents and endeavour to enable children to attend as regularly as possible.
• Absence is also monitored for the health and well- being of children, for example so that we are aware of outbreaks of illness which need to be investigated, or to warn parents of infections such as German measles.
• Monitoring attendance and use of government funded hours may be passed on at the local authority’s request.
• If a child is missing from nursery on several occasions or stops attending the setting with no explanation, staff are alert to the possibility of risk of abuse or neglect, and informs the DLP who will investigate and liaise with outside agencies.

Funded places;

• Two, three and four year old funding is provided through the local authority. This is public money and we feel that we have a duty to ensure it is used appropriately. If a place has been reserved but is being used for less than 75% of booked session, we reserve the right to offer that place to any child who may be on our waiting list, for example, a child who has been allocated two year old funding, but cannot take up a place because sessions are full. This way we can be sure to use the funding to its best effect.
• We would discuss reasons for absence with parents before retracting the funding offer, and make every effort to work with them to encourage them to increase attendance. Funding would only be withdrawn as a last resort, and at the end of a school term.