Regular attendance of school is a crucial part in your child’s academic and social development. The Government regard 95% attendance, per academic year, as the minimum satisfactory attendance level per pupil. Your child should only miss school for authorised absences. Any other form of absence will be classed as unauthorised. The school may refer your child to the Education Welfare Officer or issue Fixed Penalty Notices if attendance and/or punctuality is causing concern.

We understand that there are some genuine reasons for pupil absences, but other than these we must insist that pupils are in school every day, if they are well enough to be there. Genuine illnesses should be reported to the school, and the school will work with you on any longer-term illnesses to provide support.

If your child cannot attend school for any reason, you should contact the school immediately. It is only when the school has been informed of any absences we can make a judgement on authorised and unauthorised absences. The school will need to be notified of any absences before school starts at 9:00 a.m. 

If you need to report an absence, please contact the school on:

01443 570090 and either leave a message consisting of your child’s name, class and reason for absence on the school answer-machine or inform a member of staff. 

Attendance is closely monitored on a daily basis by:

Mrs C Rossiter   and    Mrs J Taylor

Some facts about school attendance:

• Keeping children away from school for no good reason is a criminal offence.
• Fines could be issued to parents of children with continually poor attendance levels.
• Only the school can authorise absences. Notifying the school is necessary for the reasons given to be considered by the school.
• The only legal reasons for pupil absence are illness, emergency medical appointments, religious observance and exceptional circumstances.
• If you take a two week holiday in term time your child’s attendance will automatically be reduced to less than 95%.
• A two week holiday each year in primary school means a total of 14 weeks teaching time missed — this could have a real impact on their basic literacy and numeracy skills.

• 80% attendance is the same as having a day off every week. – This is equivalent to missing 4 lessons a day, and 160 lessons of learning in total!