Attendance
Children’s absences and late arrivals are recorded by the class teacher and entered on the school’s computer records. The Education Welfare Officer (EWO) regularly checks these records. The EWO may contact parents/carers where there is a concern about a child’s attendance. An annual attendance return is made to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DFE) and the statistics are used to make judgements about the school’s performance. A record of your child’s attendance will be included in their annual report.
Parents/carers should contact the school on the first day of their child’s absence. Parents/carers who have not notified the school of their child’s absence will be contacted on the first day.
Please note the following, taken from the school's Attendance Policy which can be viewed below (reference page 5):
"Leave of Absence
The school holiday dates and end of Key Stage Assessment dates are published a year in advance and leave of absence will not be authorised during these assessment periods. INSET days are published as soon as the school have agreed these, but may be subject to change.
In line with the Government's amendments to the 2006 regulations (appendix 1), holidays during term time will NOT be authorised. The Headteacher and Governors have determined that:
- where leave of absence in term time is due to exceptional circumstances, an application form must be requested from the school office and submitted for consideration by the Headteacher on behalf of the school governors, no less than 4 weeks prior to the requested date. Consideration will then be given to the pupil's previous school attendance and individual circumstances.
- If leave is taken without prior authorisation by the school, it will be recorded as an unauthorized absence and Education Welfare will be notified.
If a child's attendance falls below 95%
- The Headteacher will write to the parents to inform them that their child's attendance has fallen below 95%. Parents will be reminded of their legal duty and of the school's policy and expectations;
- If attendance does not improve the Headteacher will invite parents to a meeting to discuss ways in which the school can support the family in getting the child to school every day;
- If persistent absence from school continues, the Headteacher has the right to unauthorise any absence without the support of medical advice; and
- The Headteacher will refer the family to the EWO when a child continues to be absent (unauthorised) for;
- 9 full days over a 6 week period
- 18 sessions over a 6 week period
- 10% unauthorised absence in an academic year
- 10 consecutive days with no reason for absence
Failure to ensure regular school attendance
Wheatfields Primary School holds regular attendance panels in conjunction with the EWO. The EWO work in partnership with school and parents to support pupils who are failing to attend school on a regular basis.
Education Welfare may also issue a Penalty Notice to parent /carers who are failing to secure their child's regular school attendance and are not engaging with supportive measures to improve attendance proposed by the school or Education Welfare Officers. Before a Penalty Notice is issued, parents will be warned of their liability to receive such a notice........."
Registers will be called twice daily (at 8.45am and at 1.00pm). Registers will close in the morning at 9.05am in Key Stage 1 and 9.00am in Key Stage 2. In the afternoon, registers will close at 1.05pm. Any child arriving after the closing of the register will be recorded as 'late' for that session and that is an unauthorised absence. Similarly, children arriving for the morning session late before the register is closed (between 8.55am and 9.05am in Key Stage 1 and 8.50am and 9.00am in Key Stage 2) will be marked as “late before the register closes”. This counts as a “present” mark but it is important for the school, as the school is expected to monitor patterns of lateness, even before the registers close, and respond to them as necessary.”
If requests are made for children to leave school during the day, e.g. for dental appointments, they must be collected by an adult at the appropriate time and signed out of school. If they are returned to school later, they must be signed back in. If the appointment keeps your child out of school, until 12pm, we then expect the child to return to school for the afternoon session at 1.00pm (Key Stage 1) or 12.55pm (Key Stage 2), and not during the lunch break.