Attendance and Absences
2023-2024
All children need to be in school by 0855 each day, or they will be recorded as late. The Avenue entrance will be opened at 0830 and children should be brought into the playground by an adult. Classes will open at 0840.
Any child coming to school after 0900 will need to come to the Mary Street entrance as The Avenue entrance will be closed at 0900.
08 October 2019
Attendance within Somerset schools is changing. If a child is absent for 6 sessions (3 days) within a half term, this will now be deemed as persistent absenteeism. Please do not get offended when letters are sent requesting evidence for any illness or medical appointments.
If a child's attendance doesn't improve from support of the class and school then we will need to complete an Early Help Assessment to request external support to improve this. Part of this referral will be for support either from our PFSA, Mary Cooper, or Team Around the School (TAS), a multi-professional meeting where schools bring children/families to discuss and access additional support from police, health, Social Services etc.
We appreciate illness happens but the guidelines that have been put in place are to ensure children's safety and if we are concerned that poor attendance is negatively impacting a child we will need to refer this to Education Safeguarding.
If you have any questions please contact the school office.
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"The school regularly monitors attendance data, including for key groups. Patterns are analysed and rigorously followed up. Historic, low attendance (due mainly to the persistent absence of a few pupils) continues to be rigorously addressed. Pastoral support provided by the school is appreciated by parents and proving to be effective," OFSTED 2017 Attendance
If your child is away from school for any reason, it is important to let us know. Please telephone the school in the morning, before 10.30am, and follow up with a letter to explain the absence to the class teacher on the child's return to school.
If it is to be a long absence, work can be sent home for him/her to do. The Headteacher follows DfE and LA guidelines when considering requests for term time absence. Only in exceptional circumstances will any term time absence be authorised. A family holiday is not considered an exceptional absence. Requests for absence in term time must be made by completing a request form, which is available from the office. Any unathorised absences which amount to more than 10 sessions in any one academic year may be reported to the Education Attendance Officer and may result in a fine for the parents.
An unauthorised absence is one in which the reason for the absence has not been made known to the school, or is not authorised by the school.
The school's absence rate as at 11/07/18 is 3.6%. |