Attendance

As you know, attendance at school is vital for all pupils. There is a distinct link between those children who attend best, and those who make the most progress.

Attendance / absence is presented as a percentage figure, but it’s helpful to equate this to the number of days off:

• Each day of absence during the year will lower a pupil’s attendance by over 0.5%.

• One week of absence will lower a pupil’s overall attendance by 2.6%.

• Two weeks holiday in term time will lead to a fall of 5.3%. Therefore the highest possible figure they could finish the year with is 94.7% - if they didn’t have any other absences at all.

• The national attendance figure is over 96%. We have to aim to be at or above that. 

If your child is unwell, please phone or email the school on the first morning of the illness to explain why they will be absent. Please contact us on the morning of each subsequent day they are away to do the same. If contact is not made, their absence will be marked as unauthorised. For longer term absence due to illness, of over 4 days, you will be asked to provide medical evidence of the condition (eg doctor's note or prescription) so that we can authorise the absence. Unauthorised absence can lead to a penalty fine.

Whilst we appreciate that it is cheaper to take families on holiday outside of term time, it can have a major impact on the child. Missing a week of education means they miss important teaching input and spend a long time trying to catch up on their return.

New guidelines dictate that we cannot authorise such absence unless in 'exceptional circumstances'. If you do wish to apply for authorisation of an absence for your child, please use the following form to do so, emailing it to the school, or dropping it into the office.