Attendance

Punctuality & Attendance Matters

The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Authority (LA) have instructed schools to make changes to the way that attendance and punctuality is monitored. As a school we have a direct responsibility to ensure that all children are in school on time and every day. This has a positive impact on learning, progress and therefore gives the best life chances for all our children. If your child has ongoing difficulties with attendance, please be assured that we will work with you to resolve this.

We are very strict with our timings at the beginning of each day, because attending school on time every day matters:

School Times

The school gates open between 8:35-8:45am with our school day starting at 8:45am when the school gates will be closed. All children arriving between 8:45-8:50am will need to come through the office. Registers are taken at 8:50am so any child arriving after this will be marked as ‘L’ late. If a child arrives after 9:00am they will be marked as ‘U’ unauthorised. The end of the school day for all children is 3:15pm.

Illness

We encourage you to send your child to school if they have a cough or cold as we will keep an eye on them and send them home if they are not well enough to be at school. However, we realise that there will be the odd occasion where a child is too ill to come to school. In this instance it is essential for you to ring/email into school on each day of your child’s absence please. Failure to do so will mean that the Attendance team will be in contact as this constitutes a safeguarding concern, and we are legally bound to chase this up.

Medical Appointments

Wherever possible, please avoid making routine medical appointments during the school day. In the majority of cases these can be made outside of the school day or during school holidays.

If this is not possible please come and speak to the Attendance team.

Religious Observance

We recognise and support children with different faiths, and understand that they may need to participate in days of religious observance and that this may be a legitimate reason given for a Leave of Absence request.

Where a day of religious observance falls during school time and has been exclusively set apart for religious observance via the religious body to which the child belongs, the absence from school will be authorised. Parents/cares are requested to give advance notice if they intend for their child to be absent. Evidence from the religious body may be required.

Holidays During Term Time

Taking a holiday during term time cannot be authorised for any reason. Rules around term time absence have changed dramatically – if you would like further details about this please do come and speak to the Attendance team.

Leave of Absence Forms

Parents/carers are always required to complete a Leave of Absence form if they know that their child is going to be absent. This should ideally be completed and returned to the school office 4 weeks in advance of the absence to allow school time to consider the request and respond. Even if you are aware that this absence will not be authorised it is essential to complete the form for us, as this will negate concerns over your child’s wellbeing and safety on those days.

Monitoring

Each school has a dedicated Attendance Champion who will work with a team of people to monitor absence levels, lateness, patterns and trends. 10 unauthorised sessions (5 days, not necessarily consecutive) must now be referred to the Local Authority for a fine (Fixed Penalty Notice) and may be subject to prosecution for unauthorised absence during term time (this is dealt with by Dorset Council, and entirely out of our hands). Our Attendance Team will be in regular contact where there are concerns about a child’s attendance/absence record. This could be staged letters informing you of specific concerns, and meetings with the Attendance team. We really want to work together to overcome any barriers and improve attendance, so please do reach out to us as we always have the greatest success when parents/carers and the school are able to work in unity.

Celebrating Good Attendance

Whilst we recognise that this information may be overwhelming as it has a much-altered tone to the DfE’s previous Attendance Agenda, the vast majority of children at Abbey School have very good attendance which we will celebrate termly. Our school has a culture that is welcoming and friendly, and is a safe space for children and parents, and we want to continue that.

We will also share whole school attendance information regularly with parents/carers to keep everyone informed. Teachers will share children’s’ individual figures for attendance at Parent Meetings in both the Autumn and Spring Terms. This will then be published and shared at the end of the school year in each child’s End of School Year Report.

Working Together To Promote Good Attendance

We expect the following from our parents/carers:

• To ensure their children attend school regularly and punctually

• To ensure contact is made with school, as soon as is reasonably practical, whenever their child is unable to attend by phone or email to the school office (not Class Dojo)

• To ensure that their children arrive in school well prepared for the school day, having eaten breakfast, and taken any medications that are part of their usual routine

• To talk to a member of school staff about any problem or reason that may prevent their child/children from attending school

• Inform the school of up-to-date contact numbers and details.

‘This is the Day’ that we work together to ensure the very best outcomes for your child!