Attendance and Punctuality

`Those who lead, turn up…`

 

Here at Stanway Primary School, we recognise that positive behaviour and good attendance are essential in order to raise standards of pupil attainment and to give every child the best education experience possible.

 

For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.  Good attendance is essential in ensuring your child does as well as they can at school.

 

If your child is unwell or otherwise absent you should contact the school before 9:00am. The school has a dedicated absence voicemail facility available for you to leave a message if nobody is available to take your call. Parents are asked to contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9am, and to ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible.

Although children are not officially late until after 8.40am when the gates are locked, please could you ensure that children are entering the school, with the rest of their classes, before 8.40am, so that they can be fully part of the morning routine. It is disturbing for both the child and the class if they get into a pattern of always entering slightly later than everyone else. Children arriving after 8:40am should come in to school via the school office, where you will be asked to sign them into our ‘Late Book’ and provide a reason for their late arrival.

 

Parents are asked to contact school before 9.00am to notify us of a child’s absence. Authorised absence, e.g. illness or medical appointments, must be supported by a phone call, email or letter from parents explaining the reason for the absence. If your child has an appointment during the school day or goes home ill you will be asked to sign them out at the school office.  Where parents fail to make contact providing a reason for absence, the School Attendance Officer will endeavour to contact them. If contact is still not made, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.  If contact has not been made for more than 48 hours, then we will follow our Safeguarding procedures.

Leave of Absence

As a rule, requests for family holidays will not be authorised during term-time. If you are taking your children out of school for this purpose, the time off will be marked as unauthorised, and you could receive a Penalty Notice.

Unauthorised absence includes:

· parents keeping children off school unnecessarily e.g. because they had a late night or for non-infectious illness or injury that would not affect their ability to learn.

· absences which have never been properly explained

· children who arrive at school after the close of registration are marked using a ‘U’. This indicates that they are in school for safeguarding purposes however is recorded as an absence for the session.

· shopping trips

· looking after other children or children accompanying siblings or parents to medical appointments

· their own or family birthdays

· holidays taken during term time without leave not deemed ‘for exceptional purposes’ by the headteacher- may result in school applying to the local authority to issue a Penalty Notice or if you have previously been issued a Penalty Notice, the school may request a direct prosecution by the local authority.

· day trips

· other leave of absence in term time which has not been agreed

                                                  Stanway Primary School Attendance Policy

There is no entitlement for parents to take their child out of school during term time; however, you may apply to the school for leave of absence if you believe there are exceptional circumstances. The regulations make it clear that a family holiday is not seen as exceptional circumstances. 

Our policy, in line with the Local Authority’s advice to schools, is to take legal action against parents who take unauthorised holidays in term-time.  Please see our Attendance Policy for more information.