Written question asked by Richard Burden (Labour) on Wednesday, 13 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 January 2010. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Pupils: Attendance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what steps he is taking to ensure that attendance records of schools which open during extreme weather conditions are not compared unfavourably with schools which close in such conditions and are notionally recorded as having 100 per cent. attendance.

Answer: Every lesson counts and it is right that schools should stay open during poor weather conditions where it is safe to do so. Those schools that remained open during the recent spell of poor weather should be commended for doing so.It is for this reason that we are asking local authorities to ensure that schools are not penalised for remaining open during the recent snow and to make it clear that we expect authorities to take any increased absences due to the poor weather into consideration when looking at school absence figures—where the head teacher is able to provide suitable evidence.The Pupil Registration Regulations 2006 are clear that where a school is open and pupils do not attend, their non-attendance has to be recorded whether it is due to the poor weather or for any other reason (e.g. illness, or being on holiday). While this will mean that those schools will have a higher absence rate than if they had been forced to close, head teachers should not take decisions about closing schools based on concerns about absence records. Their primary concern in such cases should be for the welfare of their pupils and staff.The Department are currently looking at ways that absences due to exceptional circumstances, such as the recent poor weather conditions, can be reported and monitored within the school absence data. However, we will not be able to do this for the recent snow.

Secondary information