Attendance and Punctuality

Good attendance and punctuality support the route to a good education. As in everything we do, we have high expectations for good attendance and punctuality. Any absence can affect the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning, friendships and attitude to school.

To enable a prompt start to the school day, we expect all children to arrive at school on time.  Our doors open at 8.45am so that all children can enter school and prepare for the start of the day at 8.50am prompt.  Children should be supervised until school doors open, to ensure their safety. Please remain with your child until they enter the building.

We ask parents to be prompt to collect their children at the end of the day at 3:20pm, as children can become anxious if parents are late.  However, we do understand sometimes unforeseen circumstances happen and if you are going to be late collecting your child, please telephone school to inform us.  If you are collecting more than one child from school, please collect the youngest children first. If the end of school arrangements change for your child, even if this is only for one day, please inform your child’s class teacher or the school office by telephone (or email if you know at least 24 hrs in advance).

Children arriving after the gates have closed need to enter school via the main entrance. If a child arrives after registers close (9am), they will be marked as late. Any arrivals after 9:15am will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

If you know that your child is going to be absent from school, please contact the school office before 9:15am on the day of absence.  If your child has not arrived at school and a parent has not made contact with school to explain an absence, the school office will follow this up with a phone call. Attendance is monitored and information is given to parents/carers at each Parents' Evening and on your child’s end-of-year report.

Absence in Term Time

By law, maintained schools cannot authorise any leave in term time other than in exceptional circumstances. Taking a child out of school in term time will affect their education and progress as much as any other absence. If leave is being requested that involves arranging travel or accommodation, approval must be obtained from the head teacher before making any bookings.

Leave of absence in term time will not be granted unless:

• a request for leave has been made in advance by a parent with whom the pupil normally resides using the form available from the school office,

and

• the head teacher considers that leave of absence should be granted due to the exceptional circumstances relating to the request.

Due to the need to evidence exceptional circumstances, parents are advised to provide school with any relevant information regarding their request at the point of application if they believe the circumstances are exception

Please read our Whole School Attendance Policy for full details.