Attendance
ATTENDANCE AND REPORTING ABSENCES
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.
Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence or later arrival disrupts teaching routines and so may affect the learning of others in the same class. Ensuring a child’s regular attendance at school is a parental responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.
By law we have to keep a record on any absenteeism.
Absence Procedures:
If your child is absent, the parent/carer must follow the following procedures:
- Contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence before 8:45am.
- Leave a message on the answerphone or email your child's class teacher stating the name of the child and the reason for the absence.
- Alternatively, they can call into school and report to reception.
If we do not receive notification of why your child is absent it will be logged as unauthorised.
Please note that it is the school’s policy to deem all holiday requests as being unauthorized. Only in exceptional circumstances will a holiday request be authorized.
If we have reason to believe that your child is on holiday and not ill a member of SLT will conduct a home visit to verify or refute the illness. If no one is home a letter will be left stating that the visit was made, with instructions of what will happen next.
How we manage lateness:
The school gate is open from 8.35am, Registers are marked between 8:40 and 8:45am and your child will receive a late mark if they are not in by 8:45am.
At 9.15 am, the registers will be closed. In accordance with the Regulations, if your child arrives after that time they will receive a mark that shows them to be on site, but this will not count as a present mark and it will mean they have an unauthorised absence. This may mean that you could face the possibility of a Penalty Notice if the problem persists.
When children are late into school, for whatever reason, parents must sign their child in at reception and give a clear reason as to why the child(ren) are late.
If your child has a persistent late record you will be asked to meet with the Pastoral Lead to resolve the problem, but you can approach us at any time if you are having problems getting your child to school on time.
What are the effects of absenteeism:
This puts a bit of perspective on the theory around absenteeism in school.