Attendance

Attendance

At Larchwood Primary School, we are working hard to keep attendance and punctuality at a high level. Clearly, pupils, who are not in school, cannot learn, and pupils, who are late, miss important introductions to lessons.

Parents/carers have an important role to play in ensuring that their children attend and are on time each day. It is the parent's/carer's legal obligation to ensure that their child is in school on time for registration each day. Research shows that there is a clear link between high attainment and good attendance in school. Therefore, it is vital that pupils attend school every day.

The school has a number of support strategies in place to help ensure that all pupils can achieve their full potential. These include:

·         Regular monitoring of pupil attendance and punctuality.

·         Celebrating good attendance - the class with the highest attendance each week is acknowledged and celebrated in our Celebration Assembly.  

·         Pupils with 100% attendance at the end of each term are celebrated

Working Together to Improve Attendance

Our aim at Larchwood Primary School is to raise attainment of all pupils through full attendance and by working in partnership with both parents/carers and the School Improvement and Attendance Service.

Our whole school attendance target is 96%. This is achievable if we all work together.

As a school, we expect all pupils to achieve, at least, 96% attendance. Research suggests that attendance below this will have an impact on levels at SATs and grades at GCSE.

What can you do to help?

Children can still come to school if they have a cold or cough.

However, if they are too ill to attend school you need to let us know. This needs to be done by phone before 09:00 on every day of your child’s absence. Before 08:00, messages can be left on the school answer phone.

If we do not hear from a parent/carer regarding their child’s absence, this will be safeguarding concern. If the school is not able to make contact with a parent/carer a home visit may occur.

Medical Appointments

We understand that it is not always possible to get medical appointments outside of school hours, but, where possible, these should be kept to a minimum during school hours. The school requires a copy of medical appointment cards when appointments are during school hours. Pupils should NOT be absent for the whole day except in exceptional circumstances.

Leave of Absence during Term-Time

Applications for ‘Leave of Absence’ are granted in exceptional circumstances, e.g. attending a family member's graduation, attending a funeral, Dance and Music examinations etc. These must be applied for in writing and in advance on the relevant form, which can be found below.

Any requests for a leave of absence to go on holiday will not be granted. Any unauthorised holidays taken during term time will be classified as an unauthorised absence. At this point, the Local Authority will be contacted and a fixed penalty notice will be issued if the absence meets the required threshold.

The Law

By law, all children must receive a suitable full-time education. As a parent/carer, you are legally responsible for this by ensuring that they attend school regularly. If your child does not go to school and there is no acceptable reason, the Local Authority can take legal action. You could be liable to a £2,500 fine per parent/carer, per child, or imprisonment for up to three months, or both.