Attendance information

14 September 2018
We believe that in order for children to fully benefit from their education, good attendance is crucial. As a school we appreciate how hard many of you work to ensure your child/ren’s good attendance and punctuality. It is the policy of our school to celebrate achievement and full attendance is a critical factor to a productive and successful school career and it was wonderful to have so many children receiving excellent attendance certificates at the end of last term. Quite simply, good attendance is crucial, without it the children miss lessons and crucial information, and will fall behind with their learning.

At school, we encourage regular attendance by providing a caring and welcoming learning environment and learning that is so enjoyable that your child will not want to miss it. In addition, we aim to respond promptly to any concerns about the school or other pupils.

The Local Authority has set a target of 97% or above attendance for all children and to ensure that we all work together to reach this target we are taking the following action:

  • marking registers accurately and punctually during morning and afternoon registration and following up any absence with a text or phone call
  • celebrating good and improved attendance – we award a Class Award to the highest achieving class each half term and have an overall Attendance Certificate. In addition, the school works closely with the Education Welfare Officer, Mrs Nicky Archard, to ensure that the school monitors pupils’ patterns of attendance, informing parents/carers in writing of irregular attendance, arranging meetings with them if necessary. Each half term, we will publish and display attendance statistics and inform parents of their child’s current attendance. As a school, we expect that parents/carers will
  • ALWAYS encourage regular school attendance and be aware of your legal responsibilities
  • ALWAYS ensure that your child arrives at the school punctually and fully prepared for the day
  • Ensure that you contact the school whenever your child is unwell and unable to attend school
  • Contact the school by 9.15 am on the first day of your child’s absence and telephone every day thereafter unless your child has a doctor’s certificate
  • Contact us promptly whenever any problem occurs that may keep your child away from school. Schools are also required to notify the Local Authority if a child has a number of unauthorised absences. Unauthorised absences can be acquired when:
  • A family holiday is not normally considered by the Government to be an ‘exceptional circumstance’ and therefore will not be authorised by the school. We must take this opportunity to remind you, that should you chose to take your child out of school without the authorisation of the school, then Parental Responsibility Measure could be instigated. This could mean receiving a Penalty Notice or summons to court proceedings which could result in a fine of up to £2500 and/or a term of imprisonment up to 3 months.
  • Leave has been requested, but the circumstances are such that the school cannot authorise the leave and it is taken anyway
  • Leave is not requested and the school has grounds to believe that the child has been taken out of school for an avoidable reason
  • A child continually arrives late after registration closes, i.e. after 9.10am
  • A child is ill for 5 or more consecutive days without medical evidence the school is required to notify the Local Authority in all of the circumstances listed above. With your continued support in this area, we look forward to maintaining your child’s good attendance this year in school.