Dear Parent/Carer
We are writing to inform parents that from the 19th August 2024 changes were made to the Fixed Penalty Notice procedure, as part of the ‘Working Together to Improve Education’ DfE policy. As such, we too have reviewed and evaluated our attendance policy and procedures to support the changes and to better align with the policy and procedures of other schools across the borough.
Willow Bank will continue to support parents and carers in ensuring that your child attends school regularly and will endeavour to use procedures and strategies that avoid the issuing of a FPN (fixed penalty notice), but we must remind and inform you that attending school is a legal requirement and is in the best interests of your child if they are to reach their full potential academically; if other support systems have little impact and the number of unauthorised absences continues and/or rises, we will have no choice but to issue a FPN. Guidance to the revised attendance procedure that all maintained schools in St Helens will enforce from September 2024 is detailed in the letter below.