Virtual school attendance
We’ve committed to improving the attendance of children in care (CiC). Regular attendance is vital to a successful outcome for all pupils and, for many CiC, school is often the stable factor that can make a significant difference to their outcomes.
As part of our commitment to improve attendance, we aim to reduce and remove the following:
- the time children miss education through absences and placement moves
- the amount of education lost to exclusions
- the barriers faced by children in care in accessing education
For more information about school attendance, use the DfE’s Working together to improve school attendance guidance.
Measure school absence
School attendance for CiC is measured by the following:
Persistent absence
In line with the government’s commitment to reduce absence the current persistent absence threshold is 10%.
To be classed as persistently absent a child only needs to miss 19 days (38 sessions) over the 6 half-terms of the school year.
Overall absence
This refers to the amount of absence a child has over the school year regardless of whether they reach the persistent absence threshold.
Study leave
DfE says study leave should be used sparingly and only granted to year 11 pupils during public examinations.
As study leave is unsupervised, schools must record it as an authorised absence.
Schools should not continue to grant study leave when examinations are finished.
The official school leaving date is the last Friday in June in the school year when a child reaches age 16. This means year 11 pupils must remain on the school roll and their attendance must be recorded to this date.
Schools remain responsible for year 11 pupils up to their leaving date - even when they have finished exams.
It’s up to schools to consider how they might seek to widen the range of learning opportunities during this time to meet the needs of their pupils.
Holidays in term-time
The following outlines our policy regarding holidays in term-time for CiC:
Essex policy states that children and young people should not be taken out of school during school time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
If this is required, an agreement would have to be given before the arrangement.
Foster carers would be expected to discuss this with the social worker of the child or young person and the fostering team supervising social worker.
The circumstances would then need to be discussed and agreement given by the director for local delivery in the area where the child or young person's social worker is based, who will consult with the virtual school head for CiC.
This should be agreed upon before any holiday is booked and authorisation is sought from the Headteacher.
If a headteacher is approached by a foster carer directly to agree to such an arrangement they should do the following:
- advise the foster carer that they cannot agree to the request without the correct authorisation being in place
- direct the foster carer to the child's social worker
Contact us
If you have any questions about virtual school attendance, contact our Inclusion Team found on our Contact us page.