Your child attendance and education is important to us.
The bell for the start of the school day will be at 8.45am and this is when classroom doors will be opened. The school gates will open at 8.40am providing time for you to walk children to their class. Although Year R doors will be open from 8.45am, the day for Reception children will not begin until 8.50am to enable parents to drop off in the main school and then walk around to the Reception classes.
At the end of the day the school gates will be opened at 3.05pm for you to collect your children from their classrooms at 3.15pm. Reception pick up will be at 3.10pm giving time to walk to pick up siblings.
Illness
If your child is unwell please contact the school office before the start of the school day. If the illness continues you must contact the office every other day until they return to school.
If your child is absent and you have not informed the school you will be sent a text message requesting an explanation for their absence.
When your child returns to school you should send in a letter explaining their absence.
Term time holidays/leave of absence
All requests for holidays/leave of absence should be made in advance and will be considered on an individual basis. Family holiday requests will not normally be authorised except in extremely exceptional circumstances and will only be granted at the discretion of the Headteacher.
This follows the advice of The Department for Education. They strongly discourage term-time holidays:
“Schools must remember that they can only approve absence for family holidays if they consider that there are special reasons which warrant the holiday.
Holiday prices and the fact that parents have booked a holiday before checking with the school are not special reasons. Absence for a family holiday can result in pupils with poor attendance becoming persistent absentees.”
(Further information on advice regarding attendance is available on the DfE website. A copy of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 is available on the UK Statute Law Database.)
Appointments
Routine medical appointments: Please make these for outside of school hours where possible and supply in advance a copy of any appointment letters/cards/text/emails that your child needs to attend during school hours.
Emergency appointments: Please advise school by phone if your child will not be attending school before the appointment and then supply a copy of the appointment.
Unfortunately we are unable to authorise absence due to sibling/parent appointments.
Absence from school really does affect your child’s progress, and usually, they will not be able to catch up on any lessons that they have missed.
1 day a week away from school = 39 days a year or 7 weeks and 4 days of missed lessons, that’s ½ term of learning lost!
Equally:
15 minutes late every day = one whole literacy or numeracy lesson lost every week!
Guide to criteria for non-attendance leading to a penalty notice possibly being given.
- 10 sessions (5 school days) of unauthorised absence, including unauthorised holiday, during a period of 100 school sessions. The absences do not need to be consecutive.
- Persistently late for up to 10 sessions. Automatically unauthorised if arriving after 9.30am and if continued lateness before 9.30am after the school and parent have tried to resolve any issues causing it.
- Any absence during formal testing or examinations where the dates have been published in advance.
We would try and ensure that we work with you to resolve any problems that may attribute to non-attendance/lateness before taking this last line of action.
Important dates are available to see on the website under the calendar tab on the home page.