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Attendance
Our hopes
- That every child attends school punctually every day.
- That you and your child make the most of every opportunity available at school, all day, every day.
- That every child enjoys attending school every day.
We as a school wish to improve attendance, your target as a family is 95% as is ours as a school.
It is your responsibility to:
- Ensure that your child attends school every day unless ill.
- Inform the school of any absence as soon as possible before 9.30am - phone, leave a message or email.
- Ensure that your child arrives promptly at the school - Breakfast Club begins at 8:00am with last admittance at 8:40am/ school doors open at 8.50am/ lessons begin at 9:00am.
- Ensure (if appropriate) that you collect your children at the correct time - 3:00/ 3:10pm - contact the school if you are running late please.
Here are some questions that are asked frequently:
- Is it important that we receive an explanation for every absence?
YES - Is it alright for me to take my child for a medical/dental appointment during school hours?
YES – but try to arrange outside school hours if possible - Is it alright to take the children on holiday during school term?
YES – BUT! Only for 10 days during a school year with prior consent from the Headteacher/Governing Body. You will need fill out a holiday form (attendance must be 95% or higher for the holidays to be authorized). If you arrange more than 10 days or have an attendance of lower than 95%, these will be noted as unauthorized absences. Remember– every school day counts! The school strongly sug-gests that you do not take your child out of school during term time. Only one holiday application per school year will be accepted. - Is it alright for me to take the children shopping, for a haircut, buy new shoes, look after sister/brother during school hours?
NO
IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS A PARENT/GUARDIAN, AND NOT THE CHILD’S, TO ENSURE THAT THIS OCCURS
If your child is often absent without reason or explanation:
- In the first instance, the school will contact you - a phone call, email or letter
- The second step is that the Education Welfare Officer will contact you: send you a letter or visit your home to try and help solve the problem.
Attendance
Excellent attendance is the secret to success! Excellent attendance means 95% attendance or more.
Attendance 90% = Good Attendance ? NO
Attendance of 90% means that a child has missed half a day every week for that academic school year!
Attendance of 90% for 1 school year means that a child has missed 4 weeks of school!!
Attendance of 90% for 5 years means that a child has missed half of a school year!!!
REACHING SCHOOL= REACHING THEIR POTENSIAL
Small improvement in attendance = significant improvement in attainment
There are 175 days every academic year when children are not in school therefore there are plenty of opportunities to go on holiday.
If your child is ill school is not the place for them but some children fake illness to stay off school. Discuss attendance with your child so that the Educational Welfare Officer does not have to do so. The Educational Welfare Officer is there to help and support you as a family as are we as a school.
Remember our open door policy.
If there is a problem with attendance or punc-tuality please come to see us to discuss the sit-uation.
The information below highlights the effects of being ab-sent during a school year.
School Year At-tendance, Number of Days, Number of Weeks
90%, 19, 4
80%, 38, 8
70%, 57, 11.5
60%, 76, 15
The information below highlights the time missed over a year through being late every day.
5 minutes late every day = 3 school days missed in a year
10 minutes late every day = 6.5 school days missed in a year
15 minutes late every day = 10 school days missed in a year
20 minutes late every day = 13 school days missed in a year
30 minutes late every day = 19 school days missed in a year
Absence
I would appreciate, in conjunction with school policy, that you call or email the school to ex-plain any absence before 9:30 am so that we can update the school register. If we do not hear from you with an explanation we will contact you and then contact our Educational Welfare Officer who will contact you via letter or phone or call over to discuss the situation.
If your child’s attendance is above 95% there is nothing to worry about – if your child’s attend-ance is between 85% and 94% we will be moni-toring the situation- if your child’s attendance is below 85% then our Educational Welfare Of-ficer, Eleri Wyn Jones, will contact you via let-ter, phone call or home visit during the term/year.
As a school we will lock the door and gate at 9:00 to certify the safety of our pupils. If some-body arrives late please come to reception.
Pre– School Care Club/ Breakfast Club
The Pre-School Care Club begins at 8:00 am at a cost of £1.00 a day. You need to book and pay for this online using the School Gateway app. The school Breakfast Club starts at 8:30 with last admittance at 8:40am so as to allow the children time to eat. The Breakfast Club finishes at 8:50am.
Both clubs are available for any pupils from Re-ception class up to Year 6.
They will receive cold cereal, toast , milk and fruit juice.