As a school we cannot stress enough the importance of punctuality in helping children’s learning. Repeated lateness disrupts routines and for many children, even being a few minutes late, can have a significant impact on their learning, throwing off their whole morning or even their whole day.

The school will regard punctuality as of the utmost importance and lateness will not be tolerated.  The school gates open at 8:40am and close at 8:50am. Pupils should be in their classroom at this time.

Registers are taken as follows throughout the school day:
- Registers are marked by 8:55am. Pupils will receive a late mark if they are not in their classroom by this time. 
- The register closes at 9:100am. Pupils will receive a mark of absence if they do not attend school before this time.
- After lunch, registers are marked by 1:10pm. Pupils will receive a late mark if they are not in their classroom by this time.
- The register closes at 1:20pm. Pupils will receive a mark of absence if they are not present. 

This poster is displayed in all classrooms, facing outwards for both pupils and parents, which explains the impact of absence on learning.

Whilst many schools offer children rewards or incentives for good attendance, we have chosen not to follow this path. Some children, through no fault of their own (be it illness or parental decisions), cannot come to school everyday. We believe that it is unfair to penalise children, albeit indirectly, if they have been genuinely ill or if parents have made a choice to keep them out of school. Instead, our curriculum is designed to be engaging and exciting to encourage children to look forward to school and want to come to seek out new learning experiences. We tackle poor attendance directly with parents by letters, meetings with the Attendance Champion, Attendance Panel hearings with governors, additional external support (such as an Early Help Assessment or Team Around the Child) or even fines for unauthorised term-time holidays, or if children are persistently absent and all else has failed. If parents / carers do not engage with the early phases of intervention we may move to requesting a fixed penalty notice sooner.

One of the major barriers to better attendance in our school is families taking term time holidays. Whilst we recognise and understand some of the reasons families may take term time holidays, we need to be proactive in improving attendance. Any holidays taken outside of the school holidays may result in a request being made to the local authority to issue a fixed penalty notice.

Tackling Poor Attendance

At the end of each week we examine each child’s attendance and punctuality in detail and pass these onto the parents.

If attendance falls below 94% you will be sent a Stage 1 letter to make you aware of the implications of poor attendance.

If attendance continues to fall and falls below 92% you will be sent a Stage 2 letter to invite you into school to meet with the Attendance Champion, we will also complete the ATTEND framework to find any areas which may be resulting in poor attendance.

If attendance continues to fall and falls below 90% you will be expected to provide medical evidence for any absence, you will be sent a Stage 3 letter to invite you into school to meet with the Attendance Champion and school Governors.

If attendance continues to fall or you do not engage with these meetings we will refer to our Education Welfare Officer who will complete a home visit to support you to improve your child's attendance.

In some circumstances we realise and appreciate that there may be good, valid reasons for any absence and parents may have already consulted with the school about this.

Local councils and schools can use various legal powers if your child is missing school without a good reason. They can use the following mechanisms:

• Parenting Order - this means you have to go to parenting classes. You’ll also have to do what the court says to improve your child’s school attendance.

• Education Supervision Order - if the council thinks you need support getting your child to go to school, but you’re not co-operating, they can apply to a court for an Education Supervision Order. A supervisor will be appointed to help you get your child into education.

• School Attendance Order - you will have 15 days to provide evidence that you’ve registered your child with the school listed in the order or that you’re giving them home education. If you don’t, you could be prosecuted or given a fine.

• Fine (sometimes known as a ‘fixed penalty notice’) – the local council can give you a fine of £60, which rises to £120 if you don’t pay within 21 days. If you don’t pay the fine after 28 days you may be prosecuted for your child’s absence from school. Please note: fining families is not something to school wants to have to do. Last year we requested several fixed penalty notices be issued to some families for reasons of on-going poor attendance and for term time holidays taken without proper notification. It creates a lot of work for us in school and we do not receive any of the money generated from it.

 

Persistent Absence

In our school we deem that any child with less than 96.1% attendance needs to improve their attendance, but anyone with less than 90% attendance will be classed as "persistently absent". Parents of persistently absent children will be asked to attend regular meetings with the Headteacher and may be subject to home visits from a member of the senior leadership team to ascertain the validity of any absences.