ATTENDANCE

Good school attendance is key to a child's education and you as parents set the expectations. Showing your child the importance of attending school every day helps them settle in, ensure they do not miss out on learning opportunities and helps them develop a confident and positive attitude to learning and their peers. Please help your child have the best start to their education.

We all want our children to get a great education, and the building blocks for a great education begin with children coming to school each and every day. If children miss school regularly, they miss out on learning the fundamental skills that will set them up for success in the later years of school. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a child misses puts them behind, and can affect their educational outcomes. Each missed day is associated with progressively lower attainment and makes it harder for children to build relationships with their peers. Having an attendance of 90% in 1 school year equates to 4 weeks of learning missed. Over 4 years, this means nearly 1/2 a year of lessons missed. 

Children have 13 weeks holiday. Children attend school 190 days a year, this leaves 175 non-school days free for travel. It’s vital that holidays are planned during school holidays and not during the term. Time lost by children due to family holidays taken in term time is disruptive to their education. Taking holidays during term time should be avoided as it can have a serious effect on your child’s educational progress, and can create difficulties for them on their return to school, particularly if they are joining a new school or class. As such, we do not support parents who take holidays during term time. However, if you feel it is unavoidable that your child may miss school for absence other than illness, please come to the office to complete a form. The request will be given due consideration but holidays taken during term time will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. “One day won’t matter” – Think twice before letting your child have a “day off” as they could fall behind their classmates – every day counts.

Illness and attendance

If your child is unwell you must contact the school office by 9:15 on the first day of illness and each day thereafter.