Attendance

Our attendance target for 2024 - 2025 is 93%

Learning starts at 8.40am every morning and children should be in their morning roll call location and ready to learn at this time. This is when the uniform is checked and key messages are delivered to the pupils.

We promote excellent school attendance, recognising the clear links between attendance and progress and safeguarding. Our aim is for all children on roll to attend school every day. This will give them access to excellent teaching and learning.

Parents / carers are asked to only withdraw their child from school if it is absolutely unavoidable.

If you know that your child is going to be absent from school for any period of time (even if it is part of a day) please seek the Headteacher's authorisation in advance, by completing the exceptional leave request form that can be found at the bottom of this page. The Government and the school wish to discourage children from missing lessons whenever possible and ask parents to take family holidays during school holidays.

We would expect all medical and dental appointments to take place outside of school hours. If a child does need to be taken out of school to attend such appointments, please inform the school of their appointments and the times they will be absent from school. The maximum length of time authorised for a medical appointment is two hours.

If your child is late for school and misses’ registration, they must sign in at the gate before 9.05 am and at the school reception after 9.05 am.

We target intervention for children whose attendance falls below a target of 95%. If your child does not attend school, they will struggle to make progress and achieve. We want all children to have excellent attendance and give themselves the very best chance of attaining high grades, which will help with their choices later in life.

Penalty notices

We can send you a penalty notice warning letter if:

• you take your child out of school during term time (for holidays for example) without agreeing the leave with the school
• your child is delayed returning from a period of leave and you have not agreed this with the school
• your child has three days of unauthorised absence over a thirty-day period
• your child arrives at school after the registers have closed on three or more occasions over a thirty-day period
• your child is excluded from school but is seen in a public place during the first five days of that exclusion.

• The Penalty is £80 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice, increasing to £160 if paid between day 21 and day 28. This amount is prescribed by the Education Penalty Notices (England) Regulations 2007. Failure to pay a Penalty Notice within the prescribed period may result in prosecution for the underlying offence of failure to secure regular school attendance. 

• Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be charged at a higher rate of £160 with no option for this second offence to be discharged at the lower rate of £80. (The three-year period begins from the date of the first penalty notice issued on or after 19 August 2024)

• A third penalty notice must not be issued within a 3 year period. Therefore, in cases where the threshold is met for a third (or subsequent) times within those 3 years, a penalty notice cannot be issued and alternative action should be taken instead