Sally King is our Attendance and Medical Officer. She works to improve attendance and follows up absences from school through, phone calls, letters, home visits and meetings. You can speak to Sally direct on 07880 826720 or by using the following email address – [email protected].
As attendance is statutory, we all have a duty to ensure that children are in school every day (unless of course, they are very ill). Sally hopes to work with you in making this possible. Hopefully, by supporting families to ensure that children are attending school regularly, there will be fewer referrals to the Education Welfare Officer.
We look at the percentage of your child’s attendance, which will fall into the following zones:
Green Zone – between 97% – 100% attendance – no action required.
Sally may contact parents whose child’s attendance is 97% or under to find out if we can support in improving the attendance.
Amber Zone – 91% – 96% attendance – you will receive a letter to inform you that your child’s attendance has fallen into the amber zone and if no improvement is made, invited in to school for a meeting.
Red Zone – below 90% attendance, this will automatically trigger a meeting or a visit. Absences will not be authorised for pupils whose attendance falls into the red zone without some medical evidence. A child whose attendance is below 90% is classed by the government as a persistent absentee.
We use a text messaging service to contact you when your child is not at school. If your child is absent and we haven’t been informed why, Sally will contact you by phone, text or e-mail. You will be able to reply to the text message to advise why your child is away from school.
It is very important to keep the school informed of any changes in your contact details as soon as possible.
It is parent’s responsibility to inform the school if your child is absent, failure to provide the school with a reason of absence could result in the absence being unauthorised.
Please remember that unless your child is ill, they should be in school every day. Please let the school know as soon as possible if your child is unable to come into school.
The school can un-authorise absences if:
It is important that your child arrives to school daily and on time. If your child arrives late not only does it impact on their learning but also the disruption of the class. If a child arrives after 9.30am they will receive a U code which is classed as an authorised absence. Lates are monitored and monthly late letters are sent out to parents, if there is no improvement then a meeting is held in school. Please see table below on how your child’s lateness can impact on their learning.
Following government guidelines, headteachers cannot grant any leave of absence unless in exceptional circumstances. This removes the headteacher’s authority to authorise holidays. Therefore holidays can no longer be authorised.
If a leave of absence for the purpose of a holiday is taken it will be unauthorised.
The regulations do not allow schools to give approval after the leave of absence has been taken. Therefore any leave of absence that has not been applied for in advance will be unauthorised.
Penalty notices are fines between £60 and £120 imposed on parents. Penalty notices may be used where a pupil’s absence has not been authorised by the school. It is therefore very important that you keep us informed of the reason if your child is absent and that no periods of unauthorised leave are taken.
We have a small weekly prize draw for pupils who have attended every day of the previous week. Classes receive a ‘Class of the Week Award’ for the best attendance and termly certificates and prizes are awarded to those children who have 100% attendance.
Finally, please help us to help your child by sending him/her to school every day. Every lesson counts. Even a short amount of time away from school will cause your child to fall behind in their work and it will make it difficult for them to catch up. Remember, as a parent or legal guardian you are legally responsible for making sure your child attends school everyday.
Please click on the attached link to see our Attendance Matters Booklet.
Please click on the attached link to view our Attendance Policy.
