Attendance and Punctuality
Every school day counts and every minute matters!
Whole School Attendance
| 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94.6% | 96.4% | 96.2% | 97.2% | 97.9% | 97.3% | 97.3% | 96.5% | 97.0% | 94.6% | 93.7% | 94.5% |
Did you know?
Being 5 minutes late each day is the same as missing 3 whole days of school? Being 15 minutes late each day is the same as missing two whole weeks at school? We start our learning promptly at 8.55am – being 15 minutes late each day means missing two whole solid weeks of Literacy learning.
Did you know?
Good regular attendance means being in school at least 95% of the time. Children with below 95% have less chance of success. Even missing just 10 days of school across the year = 94.7% attendance. Great attendance and punctuality are important habits that we want to develop now to help children succeed in the future. No employer wants to give someone a job if they are constantly late or miss too many days at work.
How can you help your child?
- Make sure they know that you think school is really important.
- Help your child to organise their uniform, PE kit and book bag the night before school.
- Agree a bed time with your child to make sure they get a good night’s sleep.
- Have a special routine for getting up, getting ready and for breakfast time
- Organise any medical or dental appointments for after school or in the holidays.
- Take family holidays during the school holiday period – we have 175 days of weekend and pupil holidays and just 190 days in school.
It is the law and our school policy not to authorise any holidays during term time. This policy was introduced by the governing body a number of years ago. The only exception to this is if a child needs to be absent for a special occasion (eg a day of absence to attend the wedding of parents or siblings, or an older sibling’s university graduation ceremony). If you do need an absence day, please fill in a form at the school office at least four weeks prior to the absence to request authorisation from the head teacher, along with evidence of the reason for the absence. If a child is taken out of school for a holiday without school authorisation, we are obliged to report this to the Education Welfare Officer who monitors attendance and punctuality on a monthly basis in school. Parents/carers are fined for taking children out of school without authorisation.
We know that sometimes it is inevitable that a child is absent if they are ill. If a child is experiencing sickness/diarrhoea, they should not be in school or 48 hours after vomiting or diarrhoea. However, if your child has a cold, or a minor condition such as conjunctivitis, the health authority recommends that they are in school. If you are not sure, it’s always best to bring your child into school – if they begin to feel worse, we will always contact you to collect them.
If you decide that your child’s condition means they are too ill to come to school, please telephone us (any time from 8am) on the morning of their absence. If we don’t hear from you, we will contact you by telephone to check that everything is ok.
We believe that we do amazing and important things every day in school and that every day and every minute matters – that’s why we work to ensure that every child has good attendance. We hope you can help us with this goal.
Term Time Absence Request
Important information for Parents/Carers
As a parent/carer, you can demonstrate your commitment to your child’s education by not allowing your child to miss school for anything other than an exceptional and unavoidable reason. Research suggests that children who are taken out of school may never catch up on the learning they have missed, which may ultimately affect exam and test results.
Parents/ carers are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure their child attends school regularly. There is no automatic right to take a child out of school during term time but the law allows Head Teachers to consider individual requests to authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances.
The Head Teacher must be satisfied that the exceptional circumstances justify an authorised absence and it is entirely the responsibility of the parent/ carer submitting the request to provide sufficient information and evidence in order to establish this fact.
The request for an authorised leave of absence must be made in advance and the Head Teacher may invite the parent/carer into school to discuss the request before a decision is made.
If the circumstances relating to this request are considered exceptional and the absence is authorised by the Head Teacher, the expectation is that the child’s attendance will be of a satisfactory level both prior to and after the date covered by the request.
If the request for a leave of absence is refused and the absence is recorded as unauthorised, the Head Teacher may refer the matter to the Local Authority requesting a Penalty Notice to be issued against you.
A Penalty Notice is a fine of £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days of receipt, rising to £160 per parent, per child if the notice is paid after 21 days but within 28 days.
If the penalty is not paid in full by the end of the 28 day period the Local Authority may prosecute for the offence to which the notice applies.