5. School action prior to a request to issue a Penalty Notice – General
5.1. The School’s Governing Body has endorsed the operation of the penalty notice scheme through the school attendance policy.
5.2. The School’s Attendance Policy clearly explains the criteria and process for addressing poor attendance, and the expectation is that all children should attend every day that the school is open except for sickness, unavoidable causes, religious holidays, absences authorised by the school, local authorities’ failure to make statutory travel arrangements, or, where the child has no fixed abode, the parents need to travel for business (subject to certain conditions). Ultimately, no sessions of unauthorised absence are acceptable, and where an exception may apply, the parent will be asked for evidence to corroborate this.
5.3. The school has taken a ‘support first’ approach.
5.4. The school has fully considered any extenuating circumstances and has established there are no justified causes for the absences.
5.5. A written notice has been sent to parents informing them of the consideration to refer to the Local Authority to issue a penalty notice.
5.6. The Headteacher can delegate the authority to a member of the school's attendance team to make penalty notice referrals on their behalf. All referrals must be sent to statutoryaction@manchester.gov.uk to confirm the authorisation to ensure that referrals are made in line with protocol.
5.7. It is good practice to ensure that parents are reminded on an annual basis of the school’s policies on attendance, including the existence of Penalty Notices.