School attendance and behaviour
Legally, all children aged between 5 and 16 must receive a full-time education. As a parent, you are responsible for making sure this happens. You should register your child at a school or make arrange alternative education, such as home schooling.
Good behaviour and attendance at school are vital if children are to make the most of the educational opportunities available to them.
If you are having difficulties ensuring that your child attends school regularly, you should talk directly to staff at the school. They will do their best to help you.
You can also talk to someone in the Education Welfare Service. They can provide specialist help and support in improving your child’s attendance and behaviour when they are at school. Each school has an Education Welfare Officer (EWO) who can offer support with problems about attending school regularly. To find out who the EWO for your child's school is, download the EWO allocation list.
You can also directly contact the Education Welfare Service.
- What if my child is ill?
- What to do if your child cannot go to school because they are ill, and how they can be taught out of school.
- What if I do not want my child to be educated at school?
- How you can educate your child out of school.
- Schools' Learning Gateway
- The Schools' Learning Gateway gives you easy access to live school information and learning resources online. You can see daily attendance records, and check that your child has arrived safely at school and attended lessons.
- Bullying
- Help and support for young people being bullied, as well as advice for parents.
- Truancy – penalty notices and patrols
- How we are trying to reduce truancy and absences in our schools and information about parenting orders and penalty notices.
- Detention
- The guidelines a school should follow when a child is given a detention.
- Report a child who is out of school
- If you believe a child is missing from education or is out of school, use this form to report your concern.
- Exclusion from school
- Understanding what fixed term and permanent exclusion mean and how the exclusion process works.
- Contact the Education Welfare Service
- If you are having problems getting your child to attend school, the Education Welfare Service can help.
