Improving and maintaining high standards in regular attendance is everyone’s business. Good attendance begins with our school being somewhere our, and your, children want to be, and therefore the foundations of securing good attendance – our children really do love coming to our school.

From the minute that you accept your child’s place with us, you are entering into a legal agreement to ensure that your child attends school every day that the school is open to them. When children are in and out of a sequence of lessons, and in and out of valuable time with their peers, they can become academically isolated, they can also become socially isolated, and school becomes a very fractured experience for them.

Working in partnership is key. Fostering a sense of belonging between families, children and school is key. In all of this, communication is key. We really do value and appreciate the help and support you give us in working together to secure good attendance.

We have a designated senior leader with overall responsibility for championing and improving attendance in school. Our Attendance Champion is Mrs Andrews.

Reporting Absences

To report an absence of your child, please send a message via the Xpressions app. We find that reporting absence via Xpression is far more effective then sending an email to the admin team; please ensure that you use Xpressions as your route to communication when reporting absences. You need to send an absence message in EVERY MORNING that your child is absence by 9:30am at the latest. Please include a brief description of reason/symptoms for their absence.
If we do not receive a message by 9:30am on the day of absence, please expect a message or phone call from a member of our admin team to follow up on why your child is absent. This communication is imperative as regular attendance is an important safeguard.

The Department for Education (DfE) has requested that reasons for all absences must be recorded and the findings included in statistics. It is essential therefore that the class teacher is aware of the reason for every absence and a note should be sent to school on every occasion.
If it is necessary due to emergencies to make dental or medical appointments during school hours, parents are then asked to inform the class teacher in advance so that the child may receive an attendance mark and be ready to leave school at the appropriate time or if arriving late in the morning arrangements can be made for lunch time.

Lateness

If children arrive after 8:45 am they will be directed to the main office so their names can be entered in the register. This will be recorded as ‘late‘.
Lateness can really impact on the start of a child’s day. By entering school during our ‘soft start’ (8:35am – 8:45am), children can do so alongside their peers and start any morning activity in the classroom in a calm and purposeful manner.
Please take time to consider your morning routine to ensure that your child arrives promptly to school.

Holiday Requests

We do not tolerate holidays during term time. There are in fact 175 days where children are not in school during the year. These are the days when you can take them on holiday. Please note that, should you choose to take holidays during term time, authorisation will not be given.
We require you to fill in an ‘Absence Declaration’ Form and these are available from the school office. We require this form back at least a week before the proposed holiday as we will invite you in for a meeting with our Attendance Champion, Mrs Andrews, to discuss your request.