Why is attendance important?
- There is a link between good school attendance and high attainment.
- Promotes children's welfare and safeguarding
- Enables pupils to access the widest possible range of opportunities
- Encourage good friendships with peers
Regular school attendance is an important part of giving your child the best possible start in life and is important to your child's future.
Did you know...
96% attendance is regarded as minimum satisfaction by the Government. Parents / carers are legally responsible for ensuring their child attends school on time every day.
What you can do to help.
- Find out the term dates and make sure your child is ready.
- Get as much prepared the evening before to save time in the morning. Check your alarm is set!
- Build regular routines for bedtime and the morning. Primary children need about 10hours sleep each night.
- Talk about the importance of regular attendance and how your child feels about school.
- Where possible all medical appointments to be booked outside of school hours. The amount of disruption to learning time should be kept to a minimum if this is not possible.
- Try to arrange a back up plan for getting to school if there are unforeseen circumstances. Ask family member, neighbour or another parent to help.
What to do if you need to report an absence
- Ring the school office, before 9:30am, to report the absence and reason 01642 673984
- Must ring on every day of absence.
- Refer to 'Guidance for common childhood illness' (bottom of this page)
Lateness
Children arriving late may seriously disrupt not only their continuity of learning but also that of others. When pupils arrive late after the close of registers and fail to provide an adequate explanation they are marked as unauthorised for that session.
If your child is late to school they might:
- Be embarrassed or unsettled
- Miss important information
- Miss the start to learning
- Miss opportunities to socialise with their friends at the start of the school day.
10 minutes late every day = 36 hours lost learning each year!
Medical Appointments
Where possible all medical appointments should be made outside of school times. Where this is not possible, disruption to learning should be kept to a minimum. Schools may not authorise the time off if medical evidence is not provided.
Illness - too ill to attend school?
Your child can attend school with minor ailments such as toothache, headache, stomach ache, cold and sore throats. Over the counter medications can be given before school.
School will contact you if your child becomes too ill to remain in school.
If your child has diarrhoea or vomiting they should not return to school until 24hours after their last episode or symptom.
You MUST contact school on each day of absence.
Medical evidence we accept:
You do not have to attend a GP practice in order to provide the school with medical evidence. Below is a list of acceptable evidence.
- Appointment cards
- Appointment letters
- Screenshot of NHS appointment text
- Photograph of the electronic booking system (Hospital and Doctors)
- Photograph of medicine label
- Photograph of prescription (before it is cashed)
- A Pharmacist visit note
All of the above can be sent via 'Class Dojo' or the MCAS app to Sam Scott so that the office have the evidence. Do not send to the class teacher.
Unauthorised leave in term time
Children are not entitled to holidays during the school term. Family breaks / holidays should be taken during the holiday periods.
In Stockton a Fixed Penalty Notice may be issued if:
- Your child accrues 10 or more unauthorised absences (5 days) in a 10 week period.
- You take your child on an unauthorised holiday during the school term and accrue 10 or more absences (5days)
If issued the charge is £120 per parent / child, reduced to £60 if paid within 21 days.
Persistent Absence
Is your child a persistent absentee?
If your child's attendance falls below 90% they are considered to be a persistent absentee. This equates to just 2 days a month, or 20 days of a school year.
Statistics prove that persistent absentees are less likely to achieve their full potential!
Additional information:
Department of education http://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence
