01948 840524

Absence

School Attendance and Absence

Our School Day

School gates open at 8:40am, the school gates close at 8:55 and school starts promptly at 9am.  Children who arrive after gates close (8:55am) but before lessons begin (9am), without good reason, will be marked as ‘Late’ (Code L). Children who arrive after this time (without good reason) will be marked as ‘Late after the Register Closed’ (Code U). This code is classed as an unauthorised absence but displays that the pupil was physically present in school for part of the session.

School finishes at 3.15pm.

Illness or Medical Appointments 

Please inform school by 9am if your child is too ill to attend. We need a call for every day of the absence.

It is recommended that medical appointments be arranged before or after school.  If this is not possible, please inform school of all appointments in advance.

You can contact us as follows:

Phone – 01948 840 524

Email/Text – janet.dakin@low.mmat.co.uk / admin@low.mmat.co.uk

If a child is not in school by 9:15am and we have not been informed of a reason for their absence, we will phone the contacts you have given us.  If we are unable to make contact in this way, we will send a text and/or email letting you know that your child is not in school, and that we may make a Safe and Well Check at home.

If your child is absent from school and we cannot contact you, absences will be noted as ‘Unauthorised’.  We will continue to try to make contact to establish the reason for the absence and will endeavour to provide support if there is anything we can help with. If we are unable to establish the safety of a child, we may call for the support of the police.

Holiday

The Headteacher can only approve holiday in term time in exceptional circumstances, which are very rare. Should you take an unauthorised holiday, the unauthorised absence will be reported the Education Welfare Officer and you may be fined.

Attendance Contacts – 01948 840524

Many people in school can support you with school attendance.  You can contact the following people for help, as well as talking to class teachers and teaching assistants.

Rewards

We try to recognise and encourage excellent attendance in the following ways:

  • Teaching children the importance of not missing any school, and helping them to understand and track their attendance
  • Record, support and celebrate good attendance on school reports and during parent evenings

How we monitor attendance

Children’s attendance is checked daily to establish regular attendance then fortnightly to ensure that it remains at or above the school expectation of 97%.

  • We offer a ‘Support Phone Call’ if attendance falls below 97%.
  • We may write to let you know that attendance has fallen below 96%.
  • The EWO (EWO) also checks attendance every half term and may write to you if there are any concerns. If the EWO has written to you, more formal attendance support may be needed.
  • When we monitor attendance, we consider other things as well, such as academic progress, behaviour in lessons, known medical conditions or if there are family concerns to take into account.

These checks mean that we can put appropriate support in place for example, temporary adjustments to a child’s school day, extra support with lessons, friendships or emotions.

We always try to support families and children to improve attendance, but sometimes it might be necessary for the EWO to enforce school attendance.  This usually happens when attendance falls below 90%.  If this does happen, the EWO will either:

  • Invite you into school to discuss concerns, agree an action plan and explain the legal implications of further absence from school.
  • Write to you and explain that further absence from school could result in a Fixed Penalty Notice or Prosecution.

It is never too late to try to resolve attendance problems, so ALWAYS talk to us or the EWO.

Persistent Absence

Persistent Absence is the term given by the Government when attendance falls below 90%.  By the end of the school year, a child with 90% attendance would have missed 4 weeks of school.  We try to minimise the chances of children being persistently absent by regularly checking attendance and ensuring that the right adjustments are made for a child to come back to school.  We do this with our EWO to ensure that the right support is in place, on time and in time to avoid persistent absence.

Other sources of help

Follow the link to view Guidance on infection control.

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Absence

Address

Lower Heath CE Primary School,
Lower Heath,
Prees,
Whitchurch,
SY13 2BT

Telephone

01948 840524

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