Attendance

• Foundation for Learning: Missing out on lessons, even in nursery and primary school, means children can quickly fall behind in core subjects.
• Building Life Skills: Regular attendance helps children develop essential social skills, make friends, and fosters important life skills like punctuality and responsibility, which are vital for adulthood and future employment.
• Safeguarding and Wellbeing: A child's consistent presence in school is a key indicator of their safety and wellbeing. Unexplained or persistent absence is a potential safeguarding concern, and our staff are committed to working with families to address any barriers to attendance.

• Legal Duty: Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child of compulsory school age attends school regularly.
• Only Headteachers Can Authorise Absence: Only the headteacher can authorise an absence. Parents must provide the school with the reason for any absence, but the decision to classify it as authorised or unauthorised rests with the school.
• Illness and Appointments:
  • If your child is ill, you must contact the school as soon as possible, ideally before 9:00 am on the first day of absence, and every day thereafter unless a doctor's note covers a longer period.
  • Parents are requested to make all but emergency medical and dental appointments outside of school hours to minimise disruption to learning.
• Holidays in Term Time: Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Taking holidays without authorisation will be recorded as unauthorised absence, which can lead to a penalty notice (fine) being issued by the County Attendance Team.

• Punctuality is Key: Children arriving after the register closes will be marked as an unauthorised absence for that session. Lateness adds up to lost learning time and can lead to legal action if it becomes a persistent issue.
• Persistent Absence (PA): A pupil with attendance below 90% is classified as a "persistent absentee," a threshold that the school and the County Attendance Team closely monitor, potentially leading to formal support or legal measures.