ATTENDANCE
We take attendance and punctuality extremely seriously.
Our school gates open at 8.50am and school starts at 9am. The school day finishes at 3.30pm with the gates opening at 3.20pm.
If your child is absent from school, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can authorise the absence in our register. We are now required by law to publish all unauthorised absences and we cannot authorise them unless we have a note, a phone call or a verbal message from an adult.
We are only allowed to authorise certain categories of absence. If your child is genuinely ill then this is authorised. If you go on holiday during term time you must complete a holiday request form (available from the school office) as soon as you know the dates of your intended holiday. Holidays during term time must be authorised by the Headteacher.
Children with vomiting and diarrhoea should be kept off school. They can return 48 hours after their last episode of symptoms.
Please remember that your child will miss valuable work if away during term time and requests may well be unauthorised. If permission is not given for the holiday then a penalty charge may be issued should you go ahead and take your child out of school.
We have a number of initiatives in school to encourage and highlight good attendance. This includes a weekly competition between classes to win ‘Attendance Ted’. The class with the most punctual children will receive a visit from mystery punctuality pet. You never know if it will be Panda, Penguin, Polar Bear, Piggy, Pug, Parrot or Parasaurolophus who comes to spend a week in class.
We also regularly give out certificates to praise and acknowledge children who attend well.
The Department for Education have published this guide to parental responsibility for children's attendance.
'Schools and local authorities can use a range of parental responsibility measures to provide support and/or sanctions to parents when their child’s attendance at school becomes a problem. The law gives schools and local authorities powers to offer parenting contracts and obtain parenting orders in relation to attendance. In addition, schools and local authorities can issue penalty notices to parents for failing to secure their child’s regular attendance at school or local authorities can decide to prosecute.' DfE
