Every day at school matters.

Regular attendance gives children the best possible opportunity to learn, achieve and enjoy school. It also helps them to develop friendships, take part in the wider life of the school and feel that they belong.

Even apparently occasional days of absence can quickly accumulate:

Attendance	Approximate learning missed
100%	No school missed
97%	Around 6 days
95%	Around 2 weeks
90%	Around 4 weeks
85%	Around 6 weeks

Our ambition is for every pupil to achieve attendance of at least 96%. We monitor attendance carefully and work in partnership with families whenever attendance begins to cause concern.

Recognising good attendance

Throughout the year, we celebrate excellent and improving attendance through class rewards, special activities, certificates and prize draws.

We recognise that some children will have unavoidable absence because of illness or medical needs. Our approach therefore celebrates not only excellent attendance, but also significant improvement and families’ efforts to overcome barriers.

Reporting an absence

If your child is unable to attend school, please contact the School Office before the start of the school day and tell us:

• your child’s name and class;
• the reason for the absence;
• how long you expect the absence to last; and
• how we can contact you.

Parents and carers must contact us on every day of an absence unless another arrangement has been agreed.

If we have not received an explanation, we will contact you as part of our safeguarding procedures. If we cannot reach you, we may contact other people named on your child’s records or make further enquiries to ensure that your child is safe.

Illness and medical evidence

Children should attend school unless they are genuinely too unwell to do so. The NHS provides helpful guidance about when children should remain at home because of illness.

We do not routinely ask for medical evidence for ordinary illness. However, where absences are frequent, prolonged or causing concern, we may ask for reasonable evidence so that we can understand your child’s needs and put appropriate support in place.

Please speak to us if your child has an ongoing medical condition. We will work with you, healthcare professionals and other services where necessary.

Medical and dental appointments

Whenever possible, routine appointments should be arranged outside school hours.

If an appointment must take place during the school day, please:

• provide confirmation of the appointment;
• bring your child to school before the appointment where possible; and
• return them to school afterwards if there is sufficient time.

A medical appointment will not normally require a child to miss an entire school day.

Persistent absence

A pupil is considered persistently absent when they miss 10% or more of the available school sessions. This means their attendance is 90% or below.

At 90% attendance, a child misses approximately four weeks of education during a school year. If this continued over five years, they would miss around half of a school year.

Where a child’s attendance is falling, we will contact the family promptly. We may:

• meet with parents and carers;
• listen to and identify the barriers affecting attendance;
• agree an attendance support plan;
• involve the school’s attendance lead, pastoral team or local authority;
• work with health, SEND or family-support services; and
• consider formal action where support has not resulted in improvement.

Our first priority is always to understand the difficulty and help the family improve the child’s attendance.

Punctuality

Being on time is also important. Arriving late can leave children feeling unsettled and means they miss valuable teaching at the beginning of the day.

The school doors open at 8.45am and registration takes place at 9.00am. Children arriving after this time must report to the Main Hall door with an adult; after 9.15am via the School Office.

Arrival after the register has closed will normally be recorded as an unauthorised absence for that morning session unless there is an acceptable reason.

Leave during term time

Parents and carers do not have an automatic right to take children out of school during term time.

The Headteacher may grant leave of absence only where there are exceptional circumstances. Family holidays, lower holiday prices, birthdays and holidays booked by relatives would not normally be considered exceptional.

Requests must be submitted to the Headteacher in advance using the school’s leave-of-absence form. Submitting a request does not mean that the absence has been authorised.

Unauthorised absence may result in a referral to the local authority. Under the national framework, a penalty notice must be considered when a child accumulates 10 unauthorised sessions—normally five school days—within a rolling period of 10 school weeks. Penalty notices are issued per parent, per child and may also be followed by further legal action where absence continues. 

We are here to help

We understand that some families face significant barriers to attendance. These might include anxiety, health difficulties, SEND, changes at home, transport problems or other family circumstances.

Please speak to us as early as possible. Asking for help will not get you into trouble: it gives us the opportunity to work with you before the problem becomes more difficult.

For advice, attendance information or a copy of your child’s attendance record, please contact:

School Office: 0151 928 4274
Senior Attendance Champion: Mrs. Maciver
Attendance Officer: Mrs. Evison

Our full Attendance and Punctuality Policy can be found on the Policies page.