Attendance

Your child’s regular and punctual attendance at school is essential if s/he is to make good progress.  Parents, teachers and the local authority have a responsibility to ensure that children attend school regularly and should make sure that this happens. The school is required to record all unauthorised absences and to send this information to the Local Authority.

Our school target is to achieve an average of 97% attendance. 

Please remember that the only acceptable reasons for absence are:

• Illness
• Medical Appointment
• Religious Observance
• Leave of Absence (with the schools permission in advance)

The following reasons for absence are unacceptable:

• Family Holiday
• Lateness
• Looking after another member of the family/another member of the family is unwell
• No alternative method of getting to school is organised by the parents or carers when they are not able
• No uniform/shopping to buy uniform

All parents and carers should know that:

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• Every morning that your child is absent you must contact us before 8:50 am and give a valid reason for the absence. If you do not contact us then the absence will be unauthorised.

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• If your child is absent from school and you have not contacted us with a valid reason then our headteacher may conduct a home visit to check the child is safe and well.

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• It is your legal responsibility to ensure that your child attends school. 

• We do understand that there are legitimate health reasons why some children miss school.  Our first instinct will always be to work with parents and carers to support you in ensuring good attendance for your child whatever the circumstances you face.

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• Following the pandemic it is more important than ever that your child attends school so that they can make sure that they get quickly back on track to achieving their academic and social potential.

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• There are 175 days a year when school is not open, this is time for your child to spend on family time, visits, shopping, holidays, household jobs and other appointments.  They should not miss school for these reasons.

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• The final few days before a school holiday are not a "good time" for your child to stay off school.  Teachers will continue to teach normal curriculum lessons and if your child misses these they will fall behind. 

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• Parents should not keep one child off school because a sibling/friend is ill.  

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• If your child’s attendance falls below 95% the headteacher may contact you to alert you to this. We know that in some instances this might be because of periods of self-isolation - the contact is intended to be supportive and our aim is to work with parents and carers to ensure attendance improves.

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• If your child’s attendance falls below 90%  we will then contact you again and will more closely monitor future attendance.  Our headteacher may contact you to arrange a meeting so that we can put in place a plan to help you improve your child's attendance.

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• If you are concerned about your child’s attendance and you need support, then the first point of contact for each year group is listed below:

Arriving late to school:

Every moment of the school day is valuable and that is why we like our children to be here ready to work from 8.50am onwards. 

Lateness is not acceptable unless there are specific reasons. These should be shared with the head teacher as early as possible so that the reason can be dealt with quickly and in the interests of the child. Persistent lateness will be challenged directly by the head teacher and if necessary by a member of the Local Authority Education Welfare Team (Targeted Support Services).

Please click below to see our attendance policy.