ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY

Attendance At Holy Trinity C of E Primary School

ARRIVAL AT SCHOOL AND REGISTRATION

All the school doors open at 8.50 am until 8.55 am. This time is sufficient for all pupils to come into their classroom. 

Pupils are allowed to come into school from 8.45 am onwards when the gates open. At 8.50 am the children are able to walk into school. Key Stage 1 children  enter through their outside classroom door. 

The gates and door at the back of the school are kept open until 8.55am. If a child arrives after 8.55am, they must report to the school office at the front of the school where parents will be required to sign the late book with a reason for lateness.

MESSAGES

We realise that many parents wish to pass on messages to teachers at the beginning of the day. However, as our teachers are supervising children in the classrooms from 8.50 am, we request that you do not come into school to give a message directly to the teacher. If parents have any messages, they must come to the main entrance and talk to the office staff and should not walk into school following the children to their classrooms. 

LATENESS

Once the doors are closed at 8.55am the only way to get into school is via the school office. Any pupil who comes into school this way will be marked as late in the attendance record and parents will need to sign the late book and give reason for lateness. Records are kept of those pupils who are late, this is documented on the electronic register for each pupil (Attendance code L). Any child who arrives for school later than 9.30 will be marked as having an unauthorised absence for the morning. (Attendance code U). Please note a U code affects your child's attendance percentage.

Children who have attended an appointment and subsequently come to school later than 9 am will have the absence recorded as a medical absence (Attendance code M).

Children who are persistently late miss a significant amount of learning, often the most important aspect, as the beginning of the day is where the teacher explains the learning and what each child is expected to achieve.

Where there have been persistent incidents of lateness parents/carers will receive a letter advising them of the concerns and the school will provide opportunities for parents/carers to seek support and advice to address these issues.

ABSENCES

Parents/carers should contact the school on the first day of their child’s absence. When parents/carers notify us of their child’s absence it is important that they provide us with details of the reason for their absence. There is an option on our school answer phone service to report a child's absence. 

All absences are recorded as either authorised or unauthorised absences on the computer.  It is important that we receive accurate information from parents with reasons for the child’s absence. This information is used to determine whether the absence is authorised or unauthorised. The school Attendance Officer  has the responsibility to determine whether absences are authorised or unauthorised.

 Where we have not received reasons for a child’s absence then we telephone parents/carers to obtain a reason.

What is 'Persistent Absence'?

Persistent Absence refers to any pupil who has attendance of below 90% or who is at risk of reaching this level.
Persistent Absence data is reported on by Local and central Government and schools are expected to reduce the levels of Persistent Absence within their schools.

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First Day Contact

Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent, then we initiate a first day contact process. The school attendance officer checks all registers from 9.05am to 9.30am on a daily basis, to identify those pupils who are absent. There are occasions when we are unaware why the child is absent and we will contact the parent to check the reasons for the child’s absence. If we are unable to get in touch with a parent it is within our duty to carry out a home visit. 

Illness                    

When children have an illness that means they will be away from school long term, the school will do all it can to send material home, so that they can keep up with their school work.

If the absence is likely to continue for an extended period, or be a repetitive absence, the school will contact the support services to see if arrangements can be made for the child to be given some home tuition outside school.

Where over the course of an academic year, a child has repeated periods of illness, the school will write to parents to ask them to provide medical evidence for each future period of illness related absence. This evidence could be a Doctor’s note, appointment card or copy of a prescription. We may seek written permission from you for the school to make their own enquiries.

Appointments during school hours 

If on any occasion that your child has an appointment during school hours which could not be avoided, we ask to see medical evidence in forms of an appointment card or an appointment letter.

ADDRESSING ATTENDANCE CONCERNS

The school expects attendance of at least 95%.

It is important for children to establish good attendance habits early on in their primary school career. It is the responsibility of the Headteacher, the school Attendance Officer and the  school Governors to support good attendance and to identify and address attendance concerns promptly. In primary school we rely upon parents to ensure their child attends school regularly and punctually and therefore where there are concerns regarding attendance parents are always informed of our concerns. Initially concerns about attendance are raised with parents via letters which are sent home. There will be opportunities for the parent/carer to discuss reasons for absence and support to be given by the school with the aim to improve attendance. Where a child’s attendance record does not improve over a period of time then the school has a responsibility to make a referral to an Inclusion Officer. Please refer to our Attendance Policy for more information.

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REQUESTING A LEAVE OF ABSENCE

Headteachers cannot authorise any leave of absence during term time unless they are satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances to warrant the granting of leave. 

Please read our Attendance Policy for further detail (see below).

It is important to note that:

• exceptional circumstances are by definition, rare and should not reoccur annually. Unfortunately, the cost of holidays or availability of accommodation in school holiday times cannot be taken into consideration.

• ‘surprise’ holidays booked by another family member are unlikely to be authorised and may incur a penalty notice; please inform other family members of this legislation.

• ensure that a leave of absence for your child has been authorised prior to booking the holiday.

• ensure that the leave of absence request form is only filled in by the parent with whom the child usually resides. If mum and dad live separately, a request form may come from both parents only if there is a 50/50 custody agreement.

There is Local Authority application form for a leave of absence (click on link below). On this form you will need to provide information regarding the exceptional circumstances supporting this application for leave. Each application will be considered by the headteacher. Once our decision is made, you will be informed whether the leave is authorised or unauthorised and the reasons for our decision. Your form will be held in our records.

We hope all parents will acknowledge and understand the limitations placed on schools in granting any leave in term time. We need parental support to ensure that we can avoid going down the route of using penalty notices; so please only request leave in term time if the circumstances are exceptional. We ask our parents to support the school in our efforts to reduce unnecessary absence and thus minimise the impact on the education of our pupils.

To see our Attendance Policy, please click on the link below;