Our holiday list can be found here.
“Learning’s good, learning’s cool, so come on kids let’s go to school!”
School “attendance matters” at St. Peter’s School.
We ask that children attend school every day unless they are too unwell to do so.
Attendance is very carefully monitored by the school.
Parents are asked to speak to the head teacher if they have concerns or issues arising.
“Attendance and punctuality are an important part of good behaviour. Students who miss valuable time in classrooms fall further behind, and become more disengaged from the work of the class, which in turn encourages misbehaviour. In successful schools, the expectation is 100% attendance and 100% punctuality. This admittedly near-impossible goal is embedded as an aspirational norm. Crucially, it is monitored and tracked in real time Administrative staff are allocated for this duty and just as crucially, deviation from this 100% results in a school reaction, an investigation, a sanction, support, whatever is needed.”
Tom Bennett; Independent review of behaviour in schools
Here at St Peter’s we are committed to supporting parents to enable children to attend school. We aim to work collaboratively and follow the DfE guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance. The document can be found here: DFE Working Together to Improve School Attendance.
Attendance Policy Nov 25
Attendance Penalty Notice and Guidance
Bolton Council Fixed Penalty Notice Information for Parents
Bolton Council
Important Update – Changes to Education-related Penalty Notices
Information for Parents
You may be aware that the Department for Education has recently announced national changes to penalty notices
issued for unauthorised absence in term time. These changes will come into effect on 19 August 2024.
The changes to be aware of are:
- Penalty notices issued for offences that take place after 19 August 2024 will be charged at a new rate of £160 per parent per child. This can be paid at £80 if paid within 21 days.
- Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.
- The threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered is set at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period (1). This may include absences because of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years.
- A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).
- Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds.
Please see examples below for further clarification:
- A penalty notice issued for any offence that begins prior to the 19 August will be issued under the existing rules. Therefore, it will (a) be charged at £60/£120, (b) not count towards the escalation whereby a second penalty notice within 3 years is charged at a flat rate of £160 and there is a limit of 2 penalty notices within 3 years and (c) will be issued in line with the LA thresholds for the 2023-24 academic year. This is regardless of whether the penalty notice is issued before or after the 19 August.
For example, if a parent takes a pupil out of school without authorised leave of absence in term time for 10 sessions or more in July 2024 but the penalty notice is not issued until September the old rules will be followed, including being charged at the old rates of £60/£120. The penalty notice will not count towards the escalation.
- A penalty notice issued for any offence that begins after 19 August will be issued under the new rules. Therefore, it will be (a) charged at £80/£160, (b) count towards the escalation, and (c) be issued in line with the new national threshold of 10 sessions in 10 weeks.
For example, a parent takes a pupil out of school for 5 days in the first week of the new term at the beginning of September 2024, the new rules will be followed.
Any term time holidays that are taken after the start of the 2026/27 academic year will be treated under the new legislation as the new rules apply to any offences committed from 19 August 2024, regardless of when the holiday is booked.
Guidance for HT’s on term time holiday applications
We are very proud of our attendance rates!
School v national comparative attendance data 24-25
Attendance at St. Peter’s is in the top 10% of similar schools and top 25% of all schools in Autumn term and top 25% of similar schools for the entire year – that’s fantastic!
School v national comparative attendance data 23-24
Attendance at St. Peter’s is in the top 10% of similar schools and top 25% of all schools – well done.
| All Pupils | FSM6 pupils | SEN pupils | % missing 10% – persistent absence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | 95.4% | 93.8% | 93.7% | 8.4% |
| National | 94.5% | 92% | 92.1% | 14.6% |
| Difference | +0.9% | +1.8% | +1.6% | -6.2% |
Attendance data over time – previous academic years
Data from the inspection data dashboard issued by DFE and OFSTED shows that attendance rates have been consistently above national average i.e. absence and persistent absence is below national average.
Congratulations to these children who had full attendance in the academic year 23-24
Congratulations to these children who had full attendance in the academic year 22-23
Congratulations to these children who had full attendance in 2021/22. This is a remarkable achievement as COVID restrictions remained in place.
What a strange year 19/20 was ! Prior to “lockdown” we had 98 children who had 100% attendance, having not had a day off school between 2.9.19 and 20.3.20. Unfortunately we can’t get you together for a photograph – but we just wanted to say well done.
Congratulations also to this young man, who had full attendance throughout his entire primary school career (except during lock down). See if you can spot him on all the pictures from across the years below.