Attendance

Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education. Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any problems if your child does not want to go to school.

“Please support your child to come to school – Every day and on Time.”

Regular School Attendance

To get the most out of their education, children need to attend school as much as possible.

We have a culture that promotes the benefits of good attendance.

Every Child, Every Voice, Every Dream

Every child

Every child has the right to feel a sense of belonging at our school. We ensure that the school environment, curriculum and ethos are representative and inclusive of all pupils at St Ann’s Primary School; pupils who feel as though they belong, are more likely to want to attend. All staff prioritise building positive relationships with all pupils and their families. School aim to offer the right support at the right time.

Every voice

We aim for our pupils to have happy experiences at our school. We want them to develop mutually respectful, positive relationships. We know that social, emotional and mental health / well-being factors are motivators for good attendance and remain professionally curious to identify individual barriers to attendance. With strong attendance, we believe our children will learn to communicate effectively, build successful relationships and develop life-long skills. We want them to attend well so that they can adopt a positive attitude to all they do, to become increasingly independent in their learning and to recognise all that they can accomplish with a resilient approach.

Every dream

Good attendance gives our pupils the opportunity to grow and to ensure that pupils get the most out of their school experience, including attaining academically, engaging positively with personal development opportunities and developing good physical and mental health. We aim for all our children to explore their personal interests and talents and be the best that they can be.

Your Responsibilities as a Parent

The law in the UK entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, ability, and any special educational need they may have.

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.

How to Prevent Your Child From Missing School

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality.
taking an interest in their education, ask about schoolwork and encourage them to get involved in school activities.
discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher or principal know about anything serious.

not letting children take time off school for minor ailments, particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work.
To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:
- after school hours.
- at weekends.
- during school holidays.
You should not expect St Ann’s Primary School to agree to your child going on holiday during term time. The LA will be notified of any term time holidays and you may receive a fine.

Support on School Attendance

We recognise that the barriers to accessing education are wide and complex. We seek to identify the barriers to school attendance. We build strong relationships with our families ensuring that they know we are a source of support at all times; we are approachable and that we genuinely want to achieve the very best for their children.

St Ann’s Primary School approach to supporting and improving school attendance.

To support good attendance school will:

Celebrate attendance with pupils every week.
Reward class attendance with Family Attendance Breakfasts.
Share attendance concerns with families – letters for 90-94%
Contact families for attendance below 90% to offer support.
Write an attendance contract with families, setting clear targets
Meet/call families with attendance below 90% to talk about why attendance is low and offer more support.
Offer Early help support where it is needed – this might mean help at home to improve attendance.
Remind you of your responsibility to get your child into school.
Set attendance targets with you as part of your support.

If attendance does not improve:

A Local Authority Notice to Improve will be issued.
This could result in a fine if attendance does not improve.

Things you need to know:

Absence will not be authorised if there are concerns about your child’s attendance, even if you tell us they are ill.
All term time holidays will be referred for a fine if absence is 5 days or more and attendance is below 95.2%
10 sessions of unauthorised absence in 10 weeks could result in a fine.
Absence for a sibling’s medical appointment will not be authorised.

We want to work with families to support good attendance. If you need to talk to someone about your child’s attendance, please start with their classteacher or Mrs Morris in the office.

Attendance Policy 25-26

Attendance Strategy 25-26