Encouraging great attendance at school

The School Day:

• Starts from 8.50am & finishes at 3pm
• Staff will meet & greet their pupils in reception

Parents are expected to:

• It is a parent/carers responsibility to ensure their child of compulsory school age attends full-time education regularly & on time.
• If your child is unable to attend, it is your responsibility to contact the school on 01623 742795 by 8am of the day of absence giving an explanation as to why your child will not be in school.  If your child continues to be absent then please contact the school daily, until your child is fit to return to school.

Our School is expected to:

Register attendance

• A register will be taken by the class teacher/person leading the lesson within the first 15 minutes of the first lesson of the day.
• A register will be taken by the class teacher/person leading the lesson within the first 15 minutes of the first lesson of the afternoon session.
• If the class teacher is aware that a child is going to be absent from school, then they will alert the school receptionist and put a note on the school’s registering operating system as to the reason for absence.

Expect punctuality

• Any child/young person arriving before the register closes at 9.40am will be given a ‘L’ mark in the register.
• Any child/young person arriving after the register closes at 9.40am will be given a ‘U’ mark. Please note that this is an unauthorised mark.

Requesting ‘Leave of Absence’ in term time

Any request for a leave of absence in term time has to be granted by the Principal of the school, supporting evidence outlining the ‘Exceptional Circumstances’ may be required

All requests must to be made in writing a minimum of 4 weeks prior to the leave of absence requested.

Leave of Absence request forms can be obtained from the school reception or downloaded by clicking this link

Medical Appointments

Routine medical appointments such as dentist, opticians, etc should be made outside of the school day and a copy of appointment letter is required if this has not been possible.  All specialist medical appointments such as consultants, paediatricians, orthodontist, etc. will be authorised, as long as school is in receipt of a copy of the appointment letter. This needs to be provided to the school’s Reception.

Unexplained Absence from School

When no reason has been provided for a child/young person’s absence the school will initiate a First Day Contact’ response in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019’ and ‘Children at Risk of Missing Education’.  The following steps take place:

1. A text via ‘Teachers to Parents’ will be sent asking for the reason for your child’s absence
2. If no response is received and the reason for absence is still unknown, a phone call will be made by school to try and establish the reason for your child’s absence.
3. If no reason can be obtained for your child’s absence, then a home visit may be carried out.

Please note, we may also contact your identified emergency contact numbers on our school management system to establish the reason for your child’s absence.

Persistent Absence from School

A ‘persistent absentee’ is any child/young person whose attendance falls below 90% with more than 10% unauthorised absences.

Absences will be unauthorised if a parent fails to provide a reason for absence or the school does not accept the reason for absence provided

Our school monitors attendance very closely, looking at patterns and trends of absence - this information will form part of a support plan when we work with parents to improve their child’s attendance at school.

Supporting parents

It is in the best interest of the child, family and school if problems with attendance are identified early.  School staff will support wherever possible in encouraging your child/young person to attend school regularly by creating a safe & welcoming environment to be in.

The TEAM Education Trust’s Early Help Team and our school’s nominated attendance manager will be available to offer support if some of the issues you are experiencing are not related to school.

This support could include any of the following; parent meetings, partnership agency referrals (if it is appropriate), home visits, letters relating to progress, bespoke/reintegration education packages, TEAM Attendance Panel Interview, robust attendance improvement plan, regular monitoring and a referral to the Education Welfare Service for consideration of prosecution if significant improvement has failed in line with Section 7 of the 1996 Educations Act:

Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act states that parents have a duty to ensure their child (ren)’s regular attendance.  The Local Authority now have powers under sections 444, 444A and 444ZA of the Education Act 1996 to bring legal action against parents in order to enforce attendance at school.