Attendance
School opens at 8:45am and closes at 3:15pm. It is important that children attend school everyday.
Below are just some of the key reasons why it is so important children attend school:
- To learn.
- To have fun.
- To make new friends.
- To experience new things in life.
- To develop awareness of other cultures, religion, ethnicity and gender
- differences.
- To achieve.
- To gain qualifications.
- To develop new skills.
- To build confidence and self-esteem.
- To have the best possible start in life.
Miss School - Miss Out!!
Every school day matters!!
Attendance celebrations
Weekly Attendance
Each week the class with the highest attendance will receive extra playtime to be held under the supervision of the teacher. Weekly attendance is also displayed in the hall during each Praise Collective Worship. Parents are also invited to this Collective Worship.
Full Term
Full term attendance certificates will be awarded at the end of each term in assembly and the names of children with full attendance will be printed on the newsletter.
Full Year
Full year certificates and gift cards will be awarded at the church service at the end of the year. Parents will be invited to this special event.
Important - Holiday Request Changes
The practice to take children out of school in term time for family holidays is not permitted.
The Department for Education has made amendments to legislation that makes it clear that Headteachers are now no longer able to authorise absences of pupils during term time, unless they are for exceptional circumstances. Leave of absence for children to participate in family holidays does not qualify as an ‘exceptional circumstance.’ An exceptional circumstance may include a family bereavement, family wedding or graduation ceremony. This change came into effect from September 2013. You are still required to make a request for an authorised absence for your child if he/she is likely to be absent in term time. Please complete the normal request form but please be aware that, unless it is exceptional circumstances, then the request will not be approved and the absence will be recorded as unauthorised.
Here are some of the interventions we carry out to help improve attendance:
- Fortnightly meeting between attendance officer and EWO
- Letters sent to parents to raise initial concerns of attendance
- Tracking of attendance of groups of pupils per half term
- Regular reports to Governors from headteacher
- Court orders issued
- Text messages sent on the day of absence
- Contact with parents if no response to text message
- Prosecution
What next?
- Raise the profile of the class attendance officers and meet weekly with headteacher in order to develop ownership of their roles.
- Impact of interventions tracked / case studies developed
Contacting school to report your child absent -
If your child is going to be absent for whatever reason please ensure you contact school via the school app by 9am in order for the registers to be updated and the absence recorded. Failure to do so will result in school staff accessing all contact numbers you have provided for your child to try to ascertain why your child is not in school. Thinking about our children’s safety, school may visit the family home and if necessary the Police will be contacted if all attempts to locate the child have been exhausted.
We hope we have your commitment to this matter.