Schools are required to have, and to ask parents to sign, a home-school agreement that outlines the responsibilities of the parent and the school; including those around behaviour and attendance.

Parents are under a legal duty to ensure that their child (aged 5-16) receives a suitable full-time education either at a school or by making other suitable arrangements.

Where a child is not a registered pupil and other suitable arrangements are not made, the parent may receive a school attendance order from the local authority requiring them to register their child at a school.

For school-registered pupils or those attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), parents must ensure that their child attends punctually and regularly. If they do not, the school or local authority may ask them to sign a parenting contract or may issue a penalty sanction of £50 (rising to £100). The local authority may also prosecute a parent who fails to ensure their child’s regular school attendance or apply to the courts for an education supervision order in respect of the pupil himself/herself.

Parents have a clear role in making sure their child is well behaved at school. If they do not, the school or local authority may ask them to sign a parenting contract or may apply for a court-imposed parenting order.

Parents must take responsibility for their child, if excluded, and ensure that they are not in a public place without good reason during school hours within the first five school days of any exclusion. If they do not, the school or local authority may issue a penalty sanction of £50 (rising to £100).

Parents must also ensure that their child attends the suitable full-time education provided by the school governing body or the local authority from the sixth day of exclusion.

Parents are expected to attend a reintegration interview following any fixed-period exclusion from primary school and any fixed-period exclusion of more than five days from secondary school. Failure to attend may make it more likely that the court will impose a parenting order if the school or local authority apply for one. 

 

* References to parent or parents are to fathers as well as mothers, unless otherwise stated.