The Education (School Performance and Unauthorised Absence Targets) (Wales) Regulations 1999

Unauthorised absence targets

7.—(1) This regulation applies to every school which provides secondary education.

(2) The governing body of a school to which this regulation applies shall, by no later than 31st December in every school year, set the targets specified in paragraph (3) for the level to which the unauthorised absence rate on the part of relevant day pupils at the school is to be reduced.

(3) The targets referred to in paragraph (2) are–

(a) a final target for the following school year, being the reviewed target set in the previous school year but revised if the governing body deem it necessary to do so;

(b) a reviewed target for the school year next but one being the provisional target set in the previous school year but revised if the governing body deem it necessary to do so; and

(c) a provisional target for the school year next but two.

(4) In this regulation and in regulation 9–

(a) “secondary education” has the meaning given to it in section 2(2) of the 1996 Act;

(b) “the unauthorised absence rate” in relation to a school and to a school year means the total number of unauthorised absences in the applicable period during that year, expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible attendances in that period;

(c) “unauthorised absence” in relation to a school means an occasion on which a relevant day pupil is registered as absent from the school without authority pursuant to the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations 1995(1);

(d) “the applicable period” in relation to a school year, means the period starting with the beginning of that year and finishing with the end of the school day falling on the Friday before the last Monday in May in that year;

(e) “the total number of possible attendances” in relation to a school and to a school year, means the number produced by multiplying the number of relevant day pupils at that school in that year by the number of school sessions in the applicable period in that year; and

(f) “relevant day pupil” in relation to a school and to a school year means a pupil who the governing body anticipate will be registered at that school on the Schools' Census enumeration date in that year and who is not–

(i) a boarder; or

(ii) a pupil who, before the beginning of that school year, either has not attained the age of 10 years and 6 months or has attained the age of 16 years.

(1)

S.I. 1995/2089, as amended by S.I. 1997/2624.