Recording attendance

‘Restricting attendance during the national lockdown: schools - Guidance for all schools in England’ has now been published by the Department for Education. 

Within the guidance, which also covers testing, school workforce issues etc., there is specific registration guidance on the use of national codes, which confirms the information provided by the DfE last week:

‘All pupils who are not eligible to be in school should be marked as Code X. They are not attending because they are following public health advice.

As vulnerable children are still expected to attend school full time, they should not be marked as Code X if they are not in school (except if they are shielding, self-isolating or quarantining). If the parent of a vulnerable child wishes their child to be absent, the parent should let the school know. The Department expects schools to grant applications for leave of absence given the exceptional circumstances. This should be recorded as code C (leave of absence authorised by the school) unless another authorised absence code is more applicable.

Schools should not plan for rotas or allow children other than those who are vulnerable or whose parent or carer is a critical worker to attend on-site, even if the school believes it can accommodate more children safely.’

‘While parents and carers who are critical workers should keep children at home if they can, children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical worker can go to school if required. Schools should speak to parents to identify children of critical workers who need to go to school, those that do not should be recorded as Code X. Where parents of critical workers only need their child to attend school part-time, schools should use Code X to record the sessions that the child is not expected to attend. Where the child of a critical worker is expected to attend a session and does not do so, the school should record the absence as Code C (leave of absence authorised by the school) unless another authorised absence code is more applicable. As usual, Code X should be used if the child is self-isolating or quarantining because of coronavirus’.

Guidance on vulnerable children and children of critical workers can be found here.

Bournville BookFest for Schools 1st-5th March 2021

A week of FREE online events celebrating World Book Day with some of Britain’s best-loved authors and illustrators.

Bournville BookFest is bringing the best of British children’s literature to school children for free this year – direct to classrooms, living rooms, libraries and mobile phones.  Authors taking part include:

• Benjamin Zephaniah – Handsworth-born poet and novelist
• Michael Rosen – broadcaster, novelist and poet
• Cressida Cowell – children’s laureate and writer of the How to Train Your Dragon and Wizard of Once books
• Katherine Rundell – The Explorer, Rooftoppers and The Good Thieves author
• Tom Palmer – author of the award-winning D-Day Dog explores writing about the things you love; in his case, football!
• Serena Patel – Walsall author of the Anisha Accidental Detective trilogy on writing funny stories
• Steven Butler and Steven Lenton – the author-illustrator duo behind the hilarious Nothing to See Here Hotel series
• Matt “Poet with Punch” Windle – the former Birmingham poet laureate does a quick introduction to writing acrostic poems.
• Nick Sharratt – Bournville BookFest patron and brilliant author-illustrator – does a fun draw-along.

Louise Chadwick of Everybody Reads CIC and the former director of programmes for BookTrust is creating downloadable resources so teachers (and parents) can make the most of each activity.

Bournville BookFest for Schools is aimed at children aged 7-11 (Years 3-6).

Videos will drop onto the YouTube channel every day of March 1-5. To discover the timetable, video lengths and for updates please register by emailing your interest to: education@busyparentsnetwork.com

All information is available on the website: www.bournvillebookfest.com/schools