Central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfill their potential and flourish is an assumption so widely understood that it is insufficiently stated – that pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school.

The government expects schools and local authorities to:

• Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence.
• Ensure every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled.
• Act early to address patterns of absence.
• Support parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.
• All pupils to be punctual.

Parents

Parents play an essential role in support attendance by:

• Sending your child to school punctually every day, unless they are genuinely ill.
• Avoiding taking your child out of school for holidays.

Our school actively supports regular attendance: absences and lateness are carefully monitored by the Headteacher and the school governors. Individual attendance rates are reported to parents half-termly.

The DfE expects every school-age child to be in school, on time, each day.

All absences are recorded and we are required to publish figures for both authorised and unauthorised absences.

If your child is unwell, you are asked to ring the office as early as possible and leave a message on the school answer phone. If your child has sickness/diarrhoea, they must stay away from school for 48 hours following their last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.

We notify parents of term dates well in advance and ask that holidays are not taken during term time as it is very disruptive to a child’s education.

Requests for Absence During Term Time

Families should plan to have their annual family holiday during school holidays. Any requests for absence during term time must be made in writing at least 2 weeks before using the form below and proposed time away so that the headteacher can consult with governors if necessary to determine whether the circumstances of the request are considered to be "exceptional". Absence from school can seriously disrupt your child’s continuity of learning. Not only do they miss the teaching provided on the days they are away; they are also less well-prepared for lessons upon their return. Absence during term time will only be authorised under exceptional circumstances and may be subject to a Penalty Notice fine. Please read our Attendance Procedures for further details.

School Day

The compulsory school day runs from 8.45am to 3.15pm, totalling 32.5 hours each week.

Punctuality

We expect all children to be in school on time. The school days begins at 8.50am. Playgrounds are not manned by a member of staff before or after school and children remain under the responsibility of their parents until they are in the school building. Children arriving after 8.55am need to report to the main school office where they will be marked as late.

If you need to collect or return your child to school at any point during the school day, you will need to sign him/her in and out at the school office