Information for parents

All Milton Keynes schools have their own attendance policies and are responsible for managing pupil attendance.  Please refer to the attendance policy at your child’s school for further information.

The importance of regular school attendance

Regular attendance at school is vital to help children achieve and get the best possible start in life. Children who frequently miss school often fall behind. In fact, there is a strong link between regular school attendance and achieving good grades at GCSE - having an attendance rate of 80% is equivalent to missing a day a week.

Your responsibilities as a parent

Children must receive a full-time education between the school term after their fifth birthday and the last Friday in June in the school year they turn 16 (Y11). If your child fails to attend school regularly you may be guilty of a criminal offence, and this could result in a prosecution. All Milton Keynes schools have their own attendance policies and are responsible for managing pupil attendance. Read the NHS guidance on is your child too ill for school.

Parents should be aware of new laws which came into force on 19th August, 2024.

Persistent absence

If a child has 10 unauthorised sessions in 10 school weeks, then your child’s school will send a Notice to Improve, this will warn you that they will refer the matter to the Local Authority for the issue of a Penalty Notice. The Penalty Notice will be issued after 6 school weeks if there is no improvement although a Penalty Notice can be issued after 3 weeks if there has been in sufficient improvement. During the 10 and/or 6-week period schools are expected to have a “Support First” approach. This means your child’s school should have met with you and drawn up an Attendance Contract in which you would have been given a chance to tell the school what you perceive are the barriers to attendance. The Attendance Meeting, where such a contract is drawn up, should be a discussion by all parties about the best ways to resolve your child’s attendance and should be supportive. The school should also make a referral to Early Help and investigate the reasons for the poor attendance prior to issue of a Notice to Improve. If no support has been provided it may not be appropriate to issue a Notice to Improve, however, if support has been offered and not taken up or there has been poor engagement then a Notice will be issued. Each case will be viewed on a case-by-case bases, but the Penalty Notice should only be issued where it is likely to be an “improvement tool”. In addition, the Department for Education has introduced an “escalation process” which is explained below.

Severely absent or historic poor attenders

There is now a new category of Severely Absent (50% attendance or below). In these cases, the DfE expect multi-agency meetings to take place to resolve the barriers to school attendance. Where there is no improvement or a lack of engagement then the school can decide not to issue the Notice to Improve (because a Notice will not be seen as an “improvement tool”) and will, instead, send a warning letter and then, if there is still no improvement refer for the Local Authority for a PACE interview as a precursor to prosecution as is currently the case. The school may also choose this pathway if there is historic poor attendance, siblings with poor attendance or there have been previous prosecutions.

Leave during term time

Schools are no longer allowed to authorise requests for children to be taken out of school in term time unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. The DfE state that anything to do with “relaxation and leisure” is not exceptional circumstances. This will include visiting relatives, or a holiday due to mental or physical illness issues unless supported by medical evidence.

You should apply to your child’s school for authorisation for term time leave. However, if not approved by the Headteacher, fines can now be issued if there are 10 unauthorised sessions in 10 school weeks (as above) the time taken doesn’t need to be consecutive as was previously the case.

If you take leave which is not authorised by the school, then the school is encouraged by the Department for Education, to refer the matter to the Local Authority who will issue a Fixed Penalty Notice. This is to ensure consistency across England and Wales.

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) are issued to each parent and per child. A FPN is £80 if paid within 21 days, and £160 if paid between 22 and 28 days. If the fine is not paid, you will be prosecuted in the magistrates’ court and could receive a fine of up to £1000 (per parent) and a criminal record.

If a second period of leave is taken within 3 years (same parent/child) then the fine will start at £160 payable in 28 days. If there is a third offence in 3 years (same parent/child) then the matter will be prosecuted in the magistrate’s court.

Lateness to school

The DfE now state that a school register can only be open for a maximum of 30 minutes from the start of the school day. This will mean in most cases there will be 10 minutes for registration and 20 minutes of L code (present) and then the U code which is unauthorised absence. You will need to check your school’s website to see when the register closes as your child’s school as a school can close the register earlier if they wish. The same criteria will apply as above i.e. – 10 unauthorised absences over 10 school weeks can result in a Notice to Improve and if no further improvement after 6 weeks a Penalty Notice can be issued.

It should be noted the Fixed Penalty Notice can be issued where these is a combination of codes, so lateness after the register, unauthorised absence or unauthorised term time leave.

Emotionally Based School Avoidance

In Milton Keynes, as well as nationally, we are seeing an increase in children and young people experiencing difficulty in attending school due to emotional reasons like anxiety. Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is a broad umbrella term used to describe this. EBSA can present differently across individuals, but can often involve fear and anxiety, misery, complaints of feeling ill without an obvious cause, and/or reluctance to leave home. You can read more about EBSA here.

Medical appointments

Try to arrange appointments during school holidays, at weekends or after school hours. Naturally, there will be times when this is not possible, but you must try to give as much advance warning as possible and take the appointment letter or card into school to ensure they are aware of the absence and the reasons for it.

Religious festivals

Ask your school in advance for time off for religious reasons. Only the day of the actual religious festival/celebration will be “authorised”.

Payment of Penalty Notices

If a FPN is issued, it will be one fine to cover the whole period of the absence.  So, the fine would be the same amount for an absence of five days or 10 days and is always one Notice per parent per child. 

You can make a payment for a Fixed Penalty Notice by selecting Fixed Penalty Notices – School Attendance Payment on our 'Pay for it' page found here. You will need the serial number of the FPN to make an on-line payment - this will start with the letters SA.

For further information on anything to do with school attendance please see our Code of Conduct for the Issue of FPNs and Enforcement Policy and or email us at school.attendance@milton-keynes.gov.uk.