Attendance

Attendance at school is a legal requirement for every child between 5 and 16.

Our attendance target  is 97 % and is closely monitored.

• All children must be at school by 8.50 am, the start of the school day.

• Any child arriving after this time must go to the school office and sign in so we can check what they are having for dinner.

• If you are having difficulties getting your child to school on time you can speak to Mrs Barratt, Learning Mentor, who may be able to help. Persistent lateness and absence will be reported to the Educational Welfare Officer, Dale Edwardes and the Head Teacher will request a meeting.

• Please contact school on the first day of any absence. If this is sickness you do not need to ring on following days as we will assume that it is the same absence.

• A phone call to parents/carers will be made if we have not been notified for safeguarding reasons.                                    

Holidays - Although our attendance figures are above national average, we still have some children who miss one or even two weeks of school a year through holidays. This can be a whole unit of work in some subjects and can make it difficult for children to catch up when they return. I know that some parents have little choice about when they can take holidays but would ask that you try to take holidays during school breaks if possible. If your child is off for two weeks they will miss 10 hours of literacy, 10 hours of maths and 20 hours of other subjects! Our assessments show that children whose attendance is low are often achieving below the level expected for their age. We can only authorise absence in term-time in exceptional circumstances; if you take an unauthorised holiday of five days or more you may be fined £60 per parent by the local authority.

Punctuality - Please try to make sure your child is in school on time. All our classes have learning activities from 8:50. If your child arrives late they can miss out on a significant chunk of learning time and disrupt the teacher and other children as instructions need to be given again just for them. Being late can also get the day off to a bad start for your child; some children feel embarrassed arriving when everyone else is working.