Why is it important to attend school every day?
- Learning is a progressive activity; each day’s lessons build upon those of the previous day(s).
- Many classes use discussions, demonstrations, experiments and participation as part of the daily learning activities and these cannot be made up by those who are absent.
- It has been proven that children with good attendance records generally achieve better than those with poorer attendance.
- Children learn to cope better with clear school routines, work and friendships which helps prepare them for later life.
The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.
Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.
Following all the disruption during Covid, the Department for Education are closely monitoring attendance and school has a duty to monitor each individual pupil to ensure they are at school unless they have a valid reason.
Did you know…
| Attendance during one school year | Equals this number of days absent | Which is equal to approximately this many weeks absent | Which means this number of lessons missed |
| 95% | 9 days | 2 weeks | 45 |
| 90% | 19 days | 4 weeks | 95 |
| 85% | 29 days | 6 weeks | 145 |
| 80% | 38 days | 8 weeks | 190 |
Our school doors open at 8.40am and the register is taken at 8.50am. Any child arriving between 8.50am and 9.20am will be marked as late. Any children arriving after 9.20am will be marked as unauthorised absence, in accordance with the new DfE guidance.
If your child is unable to attend school, please contact us by class dojo, email or telephone before 9.00am. If we have not heard from you, we will contact you. If we don’t get a response we will work down the list of contacts we have until we know where your child is, to ensure they are safe.
Attendance as a year group is monitored weekly and reported in the weekly letter. Attendance is also celebrated as part of our weekly celebration assembly.
Individual attendance is monitored half termly and letters sent to parents termly where children have below 90% attendance and half termly when below 80%
Medical and Dental Appointments
Please try and make appointments outside of school hours, however if unavoidable, please advise school as soon as possible and bring the appointment card.
Holiday Requests
Holidays should not be taken during term time. Where a holiday falls under the criteria of exceptional leave, permission may be granted. If permission is refused and children are taken out of school, a fine may be issued. Each is case is reviewed on an individual basis. Permission will not be given where a child has poor attendance.
