Attendance
This is an excellent school and your child plays his or her part in making it so. We aim for an environment which enables and encourages all pupils to reach out for excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education, it is vital that they attend regularly and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason is unavoidable.
Why is Regular Attendance Important?
Any absence, even one day, affects the pattern of your child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may also affect the learning of others in the same class.
Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and allowing absence from school, without good reason, creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution. We fully support the Local Authority policy on fixed penalties for absence and will refer persistent non-attenders to the Enforcement Team for legal proceedings.
New Government Attendance Levels
Parents need to be aware that the Government have altered the levels of attendance expected from pupils in schools in England. The figure is now set at 97% and a pupil will now be classed as a persistent Absentee if their attendance drops below 90% (20 days off school in the year). At this point, prosecutions by the Local Authority will begin.
Holidays in term-time can only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.
As the link between excellent attendance and excellent results has been proven by research, it is vital that parents encourage full attendance.
Reluctant to Attend?
Whilst any child may be off school because they are ill, sometimes a child may be reluctant to attend school. Any problems with attendance are best sorted between the school, parents and the child. It is never a good idea to give in pressure from your child or cover up their absence to excuse them from attending. This gives the impression that attendance does not matter and usually makes things worse. All school staff are committed to working with parents and pupils as the best way to ensure as high a level of attendance as possible so, as soon as you realise there may be a problem, you need to contact our Attendance Officer.
Regular Attendance
Pupils are rewarded with reward points for regular attendance, with those achieving 100% also being invited to take part in activites such as an end of year Reward Trips and other rewards throughout the school year.
New Regulations for Taking Holidays in Term Time
The Department for Education have recently made amendments to the regulations around holidays in term-time.
Previously Head Teachers have been allowed to grant leave of absence during term time of up to 10 school days if the leave of absence application met the criteria set out by the Department for Education.
Schools may not grant any leave of absence during term-time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Taking family holidays are not considered to be exceptional circumstances.
Absence during term time means that pupils miss out on valuable learning time. Any request for leave during exam periods will not be authorised as this is the most important time in a child’s education.
If you take your child out of school without the school’s permission this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence which also affects your child’s overall attendance figures for the year and may result in each parent being issued with a fixed penalty fine for each child taken out of school.
