Attendance

Every day of education and indeed every lesson matters. In the National Curriculum where there is built in progression, children who are persistently late or absent soon get behind with learning and then do not understand current lessons when they return.

The introduction to a lesson and to the school day is crucial to the child’s understanding of their own learning. Children who miss school frequently will undoubtedly have gaps in their learning which will impede their progress and future ability to engage in lessons. This in turn has a knock on effect for their ability to concentrate and for their behaviour.

Frequent absence has a profound and cumulative effect on achievement.

In order to ensure efficient communication and record keeping, the following procedures will be followed:

• Notice is given by parents in advance of known absences, for example medical appointments
• In the case of a child’s illness, School should be contacted as early as possible (8:00am) by parents to notify staff. A note is taken of the child’s absence and reason for it.
• Requests by parents for taking children out of school for family holidays MUST be made on the official request form. Families are discouraged from taking children out of school for the purposes of a holiday and permission will not be given.
• A register of attendance is taken every morning at the start of the day. A phone call will be made as soon as possible to the parents to ascertain why the child is absent.
• Whilst any child may be off school because they are ill, sometimes they can be reluctant to attend school for a variety of reasons. If your child is reluctant to attend please speak directly to a member of the staff team so that we can take steps to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and support your child accordingly.
• In the case of repeated unauthorised absence or persistent absence, the school is required to follow up with the Local Authority and make them aware of the details. Parents should be aware that unauthorised absence could lead to the Local Authority taking legal action against them.
• On occasions, children may have a prolonged period of absence due to illness or surgery. In these cases, staff will establish prior to planned surgery, when and how the pupil will return to school, working with the parents and other agencies as required.