Attendance Information for Parents and Carers
Good attendance and prompt arrival at school are vital in helping your child to learn more effectively and feel more confident in school. We expect our pupils to achieve above 97% attendance each school year.
The school year is made up of 190 days. The following percentages give approximate equivalents of school days missed in an academic year.
95% attendance = 10 days out of school
90% = 20 days
85% = 30 days
80% = 40 days
75% = 50 days
70% = 60 days
Every day your child is absent they miss learning opportunities and developing new skills. If your child is absent, please contact the school on the first day your child is going to absent. You can telephone, text, email, visit the office or deliver a note. The explanation for absence must come from a parent or carer. Please telephone by 9.00a.m on the first day to inform us of the absence. If the absence persists, please contact the school again.
What are acceptable reasons for absence?
- Chicken pox
- Flu or heavy cold
- Other contagious diseases
Unacceptable reasons include:
- The alarm didn’t go off
- School work is too hard
- School uniform is being washed
- The car wouldn’t start
- Helping out at home
- Minor illnesses
- Day trips
- Brother or sister is unwell
- Family Holiday
The Educational Welfare Officer (EWO), who works for the Local Education Authority, monitors our registers of attendance and late arrivals with the school and letters are sent to families whose children have low attendance or several late arrivals. Referrals are made to the Educational Welfare Officer for persistent absentees.
Arriving at school on time helps your child to start the day positively; it leads to better achievement, helps your child to make and keep friends and sets positive patterns for the future.
Being late may cause your child to be confused about the learning that has started in class, can be embarrassing for them, may lead to loss of confidence and disrupts the learning of others.
All children should be in their classroom ready for the register to be taken at 9.00am. The classroom doors are open from 8.45am and there will be starter activities available for all children. If you arrive after 9.00am please bring your child via the office and sign them in as they would have missed the register being taken in the classroom.
If your child arrives up to 15 minutes after the start of the school day they are marked in the register as Late. Arrivals after 9.15am are recorded separately as (U) “Late arrivals after registers have closed”. This is an unauthorised mark for the whole session.
The children finish school at 3:00 p.m. Please ensure that your children are collected promptly at the end of the school day and that the teacher is aware if another person is collecting them.
Leave of Absence
Parents and carers do not have a legal right to take their child out of school for holidays and therefore, in line with the DFE, holidays in term time will not be authorised.
The Coastal Alliance of local schools have agreed a policy for all schools regarding procedures for authorising absence. Parents will only be able to request up to 5 days Leave of Absence in any academic year when there are exceptional circumstances. No Leave of Absence during SAT’s will be authorised. Parents and carers who take their children on unauthorised holiday may be subject to a penalty notice, which constitutes of a fine of £60 per parent per child. If you would like further information or advice about attendance, please talk to your child’s teacher or contact Mrs Cullen, School Business Manager, at the school.
Further information from the Department for Education on parental responsibility for school attendance can be found by clicking here.