For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. It is a rule of this school that pupils must attend every day, unless there are exceptional circumstances and it is the Headteacher, not the parent, who can authorise the absence.

Our attendance expectation is for each student to achieve 100% attendance with the aim of achieving above 97% during the academic year.

Regular attendance at school is an important part of giving your child the best possible start in life.

There are 365 days each year and as your child only has to attend school for 190 days there are 175 days to do everything else.

If your child is just 5 minutes late every day, they will miss the equivalent of 3 full days each year.

If your child is 15 minutes late every day, they will miss the equivalent of 10 full days each year.

If your child is absent for 1 day each week throughout their school life, they will miss 2 years of education.

We work closely with the Local Authority and the Educational Welfare Officer who monitor lateness and absence.  Our school attendance policy is listed below.

Attendance procedures are as follows:

Reporting Absence

When reporting your child’s absence please give a detailed reason for their absence, which will be recorded on the school system. We ask that you ring the school number or report on the Studybugs App before 9.00am.

Our expectation, if your child is absent for more than one day, is to update the school daily. Minor ailments, such as a headache or slight cold, are not acceptable reasons for failing to attend school.

Please keep medical evidence of absence e.g. appointments cards, copies of prescriptions, pharmacy receipts and include them in a letter explaining your child’s absence on their return to school.

With regard to medical appointments, we expect these to be made outside of school hours unless they are for an emergency.

To promote good practice, parents are requested to give as much notification in writing of forthcoming medical appointments, two days would be a recommended timescale, providing us with evidence of the appointment booking.

Lateness

If your child will be late to school you must inform the school office to explain the circumstances.  We will need to know what time your child will be in school that day, so that adaptations to their learning can be made and lunch orders can be placed if required.

Term Time Absence Requests

It is a rule of this school that a leave of absence shall not be granted in term time unless there are reasons considered to be exceptional by the Headteacher, irrespective of the child’s overall attendance. Parents must complete an ‘Application for Leave of Absence’ form, for each child that they are applying for, which can be collected from the school office. The form must be accompanied by a letter stating the exceptional circumstance for which the leave of absence is being requested. All requests must be emailed to the school office with sufficient notice to enable a response to be provided, therefore no less than 2 weeks prior to the absence. An email response to requests will be sent to parents.

Where a parent removes a child when the application for leave was refused or where no application was made to the school, the issue of a penalty notice may be requested by this school. The Missing Education and Child Employment Service may issue a penalty notice to each parent of £60 for each child to be paid within 21 days. If the penalty is not paid within the time scale the penalty will increase to £120. If the higher penalty is not paid within 28 days, the Local Authority will then institute legal proceedings against each parent in the magistrate’s court under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996 for failing to ensure their child attends school regularly.

In addition to the above criteria, due to the importance of pupils settling into school at the commencement of the school year, penalty notices may also be issued if there have been unauthorised leave of absences during the first two weeks of September.

We are in regular contact with the Local Authority to discuss those students whose attendance is a cause of concern.

Further information can be found in our Attendance policy below. A paper copy is available upon request from the school office free of charge.