Attendance & Opening Times

The school expectation is that children’s attendance and punctuality is 97%. The school opens at 8.30am and children are registered at 8.45am. They are marked late if they are not registered by the time the register is closed at 8.50am. If a child arrives after this time they must report to reception to be registered. This avoids an unnecessary call home if the child is actually in school. If punctuality or attendance falls below 96%, children are placed on a list and their attendance and punctuality monitored. If their improvements are not noted, a call home will be made or a standard letter will be sent home. The school day finishes at 3:25pm. This equates to 33.6 hours spent in school.

The school uses a variety of interventions to support parents and carers but if attendance and/or punctuality fail to improve, a fixed penalty fine or fast-track prosecution will follow. There will always be written notification warning that a fixed penalty notice or fast-track prosecution is being considered.

100%: Exceptional attendance
96% – 99%: Government expected attendance
91% – 95%: Serious risk of underachievement 
0% – 90%: Persistent absence – possible fixed penalty fine and court action

Children sometimes have to attend medical appointments during the school day. However, we are not allowed to let children leave the school premises unaccompanied; they must be collected if they ned to leave the building during school hours. There are also obvious dangers in allowing children to leave school alone without the safety of numbers that the beginning and end of the day afford and we do ask whenever possible for children to be collected at the end of the school day. When this is not possible then we must have your written permission to allow the child to leave the school site unaccompanied.

Staff become concerned if a pupil does not arrive and we have not received a message. For the safety of your children, please let us know if they are going to be absent.

If for any reason you bring your child to school late, you need to notify the school office so that the attendance and dinner registers can be amended. There is a signing in and out book in the school office for this purpose.

By law we have to account for any child who is absent from school. Please let us know by telephone or letter, details of any absence on the first day of any absence. The school, to ensure parents confirm all absences, will follow up non-notified absence. The school aims to call home within the first hour of an unknown absence.

There are important steps you can take to ensure your child reaches their full potential:

• Ensure your child comes to school every day, on time, fully equipped and ready to learn
• Notify the school as soon as possible by email, telephone or by reporting in person at reception on the first day of absence.  If we have not made contact with a parent/carer regarding your child’s absence by 10:00am, we may complete a ‘Welfare Check’ and visit the home for safety reasons. so please keep us informed to avoid this taking place.
• Provide the school with an explanatory note following an illness or absence from school if you have failed to contact us by telephone or email.
• Ensure all medical, optician and dental appointments are made, where possible, after school or in holiday time. If this is not possible then please ensure they are made as late in the day as possible so that your child misses the minimum amount of lessons
• Ensure the school has up to date addresses, email and contact numbers for you and any alternative contacts