Attendance Policy

Agreed On: September 2025

Review Date: September 2027

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At Waterloo Road Community Pre-School we believe that although not yet statutory, good attendance is essential if children are to be settled and take full advantage of the learning and development opportunities available to them. At a young age continuity and consistency are important contributors to a child’s well-being and progress. We believe regular attendance at pre -school can set good practice for statutory school.

 

Aims  

To ensure children are kept safe, their wellbeing is promoted and they do not miss their entitlements and opportunities

 -  To create a culture in which good attendance is ‘normality’ and valued.

-  To value the individual and be socially and educationally inclusive.

-  To be consistent in implementation of our policies and procedures.

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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. We are aware that attendance is not statutory, but that non-attendance could be an indicator of other issues and a potential safeguarding concern. At the very least good attendance promotes good outcomes for children.

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Procedures

• We follow guidelines set by our Local Safeguarding Partners for absences.

• Children’s attendance is monitored through daily registers. All absences and reasons given for them are recorded, and where relevant a timescale for their expected return.

• It is the responsibility of the parent/carer to notify us by phone or email as soon as possible if a child will be absent for any reason e.g. appointments, illness, or holiday and always within one hour of the time that they were expected to have arrived at pre-school that day.

• If holidays are known in advance it is greatly appreciated to let us know at the earliest opportunity.

• If we haven’t heard from a parent a note will be made on the register that no reason was given.

• Unexplained absences will be followed up in a timely manner. A senior member of staff will make contact by telephone to establish the reason and ensure all is safe and well. The contact and reason will be recorded in the daily registration file.

• If unsuccessful, they will continue to try throughout the day and at the Manager’s discretion may use the emergency contacts held if unable to reach the parent directly after several attempts.

• If necessary, this procedure will be followed up each day by the Manager until contact is made or three days have passed.

• If contact has not been made within three working days, children’s services should be contacted for advice about making a referral. Other relevant services may be contacted as per LSP procedures including requesting a police welfare check.

• In line with our Safeguarding Policy, if a child is missing from pre-school on several occasions or stops attending the setting with no explanation, all staff are alert to the possibility of risk of abuse or neglect, and inform the Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership who will investigate and liaise with outside agencies.

• If at any time further information comes to light that gives cause for concern, procedures for responding to safeguarding or child protection concerns are immediately followed.

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Additional Procedures for Safeguarding vulnerable children

• The Designated Safeguarding Lead or key person attempts to contact the parents to establish why the child is absent. If contact is made and a valid reason given, the information is recorded in the child’s file.

• Any relevant professionals involved with the child are informed, e.g. social worker/family support worker.

• If contact is made and the designated person is concerned that the child is at risk, the relevant professionals are contacted immediately. The events, conversation and follow-up actions are recorded. If contact cannot be made, the designated person contacts the relevant professionals and informs them of the situation.

• If the child has current involvement with social care, the social worker is notified on the first day of the unexplained absence.

 

Recording and Monitoring of Attendance

• We keep records on non-attendance and in the case of unexplained absences also our contact attempts.

• Keeping records enables practitioners are alert to any patterns or trends in attendance and will consider these in relation to individual circumstances to make a professional judgement in deciding if absence should be considered as ‘prolonged’ or frequent.

• Frequent absences (usually 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.

• In the first instance the setting manager should discuss a child’s attendance with their parents/carers to ascertain any potential barriers i.e. transport, working patterns etc and should work with the parents/carers to offer support where possible.

• If poor attendance continues and strategies to support are not having an impact, the setting manager must review the situation and decide if a referral to a multi-agency team is appropriate.

• 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.

• Monitoring attendance and use of government funded hours may be passed on at the local authority’s request.

• Absence records are retained for at least three years, or until the next Ofsted inspection following a cohort of children moving on to school.

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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 not regularly being used, 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 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.

• Our agreement with the local authority means that funding may be withdrawn if a child does not attend pre-school for four consecutive weeks

• 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.  

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