Regular attendance of school is a crucial part in your child’s academic and social development. The Government regard 95% attendance, per academic year, as the minimum satisfactory attendance level per pupil. Your child should only miss school for authorised absences. Any other form of absence will be classed as unauthorised. The school may refer your child to the Education Welfare Officer or issue Fixed Penalty Notices if attendance and/or punctuality is causing concern.
We understand that there are some genuine reasons for pupil absences, but other than these we must insist that pupils are in school every day, if they are well enough to be there. Genuine illnesses should be reported to the school, and the school will work with you on any longer-term illnesses to provide support.
If your child cannot attend school for any reason, you should contact the school immediately. It is only when the school has been informed of any absences we can make a judgement on authorised and unauthorised absences. The school will need to be notified of any absences before school starts at 9:00 a.m.
If you need to report an absence, please contact the school on 01685 871110 and either leave a message consisting of your child’s name, class and reason for absence on the school answer-machine or inform a member of staff. Attendance is closely monitored on a daily basis by Mrs Michelle Lloyd (Deputy Headteacher).
Some facts about school attendance…
- Keeping children away from school for no good reason is a criminal offence.
- Fines could be issued to parents of children with continually poor attendance levels.
- Only the school can authorise absences. Notifying the school is necessary for the reasons given to be considered by the school.
- The only legal reasons for pupil absence are illness, emergency medical appointments, religious observance and exceptional circumstances.
- If you take a two week holiday in term time your child’s attendance will automatically be reduced to less than 95%.
- A two week holiday each year in primary school means a total of 14 weeks teaching time missed — this could have a real impact on their basic literacy and numeracy skills.
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80% attendance is the same as having a day off every week. – This is equivalent to missing 4 lessons a day, and 160 lessons of learning in total!
Lateness and punctuality
Pupils are expected to attend school regularly. If a pupil is ill, parents must inform the school as early as possible on the morning of their absence. School should be informed of emergency hospital, or dental appointments, in advance so that the register can be marked appropriately. Appointment cards must also be shown to a member of staff.
If a family holiday is planned during the school term, the school must be informed beforehand and permission should be obtained from the Headteacher. You will find Holiday Notification forms in the school office.
It must be emphasised that work missed will be difficult to repeat on a child’s return and therefore absences should be avoided if at all possible. A maximum of 10 days, annually for holidays, can be included as authorised absences if your child’s attendance is above 95%. If your child’s attendance is lower than the percentage expected, we will be unable to authorise any holiday request you make. If you choose to still to remove the child, for a holiday in term time, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and an FPN will be issued.
Punctuality is encouraged, as it sets good standards for life and because valuable teaching time can be lost if children are late for school.
Persistent late marks on our registers or poor attendance will trigger a visit from the Education Welfare Officer and can be subject to a Fixed Penalty Notice – FPN.
Please see a copy of our attendance leaflet, and policy, for more information on the school attendance procedures:
Incentives for Good Attendance
To promote good attendance in school, we offer our pupils a number of incentives such as:
- Certificates for pupils who achieve above 95% and 100% attendance each term.
- End of year prizes for any pupils who manage to achieve 100% attendance for the whole year.
- During assembly, a trophy is awarded to the class with the best attendance for the week. They are awarded additional time on our playground equipment.
- The chance to win an individual weekly award with our ‘In it to win it’ competition. This allows any pupil, who has attended for a full week, a chance to win an attendance sticker, pencil and wrist band.
- We occasionally invite Super Attender into our school assemblies, in order to promote the importance of good attendance with our pupils.