Attendance

At St James' Primary School we place great importance on good attendance and punctuality. We know that a child’s attendance has a direct impact on their learning. Those children who are regularly absent from school and regularly late do not achieve their potential and do fall behind in class. Please support the school in this by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives ready to learn and on time at 8:50am. Attendance matters! It is important that your child gets to school on time and aims for 100% attendance!

Lost Learning due to Poor Attendance

The chart below identifies the possible amount of lost learning due to poor attendance. How does your child compare?

Attendance during the school year Equals this number of days absent Which is approx this many weeks absent Which means this number of lessons missed
90% 19 days 4 weeks 100 lessons
80% 38 days 8 weeks 200 lessons
70% 57 days 11.5 weeks 290 lessons

Frequent absence can add up to a considerable amount of lost learning and can seriously disadvantage your child in adult life.

Nationally primary pupil attendance is around 96%. This means that a child needs to attend school for at least 177 out of 190 days (no more than 7 days absence across the whole year) to meet national expectations.

Types of Absence

Every half-day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

Authorised Absences

These are mornings or afternoons away from school for a valid reason such as illness, emergency medical or dental appointments (routine appointments should always be made out of school hours) and emergencies. Proof of medical appointments may be asked for to be able to authorise the absence.

Unauthorised Absences

An absence is classified as Unauthorised if the reason was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as to what is acceptable and what is not.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

  • A birthday
  • A shopping trip
  • Day trips
  • Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances

What to do if your child is absent from school

Contact the school office by 9am and leave a message providing a reason for the absence, including specific illness details. Messages can be left on the answer phone. The message must include the full name and class of the pupil, the reason for absence (if the reason is illness, parents should include details of the illness) and the expected date of return. If the pupil is to be off school for more than one day then the parent/carer must call and leave a message on each subsequent day.

If school does not receive a notification on the morning of day one, a telephone call will be made asking for the reason for your child’s absence. If there is no response then a voicmail will be sent requesting a reason. If school has not received a response, then we will carry out a home visit.

Promoting Attendance and Support

We believe that working together with parents is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.

We have introduced a range of rewards and systems in school to promote good attendance and punctuality with the children.

We will hold a  weekly class attendance competition with the winning class being awarded the attendance award. Also keep an eye on our school Class Dojo page to see special announcements when classes achieve 100% for the week.

The Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher are happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Please come and talk to us if you are having problems.

Attendance Monitoring

As attendance and punctuality is so important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance, or if pupils are regularly late to school.

Lancashire County Council Education Authority is keen that we adopt measures and involve external agencies if the level of attendance requires us to do so. Attendance will be monitored half-termly and letters sent to all parents where attendance is below 90%.

If there is not an improvement in attendance then you may be asked to come into school for a parent meeting to discuss the matter further. Continued un-authorised absences could then result in a penalty notice being issued by Lancashire County Council and in some cases legal action being taken.

Leave in Term Time

As a school, we are no longer allowed to authorise any requests for children to be taken out of school for a holiday during term time.

Requests for leave can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and a holiday would not be considered exceptional. Requests for leave must also be made to the school in advance. To do this a leave of absence application form must be completed either by downloading from the website and emailing to the school office or by coming into the school office to complete the application form. Parents may receive a penalty notice if their child is absent from school without permission.

We appreciate the challenges that some parents face when booking holidays, particularly during the school holidays. However, regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.

Punctuality

It is very important that all children arrive on time. School doors open at 8.45am every morning. If your child arrives after 8:50am then they are late and they will not be able to come into school via the usual morning entrance doors but should instead come through the main school entrance. You will then need to sign in your child giving the reason for their lateness. We will then be able amend the registers and ensure your child is marked for a school dinner.

Please note that if your children arrive at school later than 9.30am, we are required to mark them as absent for that half day session.

If children are regularly late, a parent will be expected to attend a meeting to look at how punctuality can be improved.

For further information regarding attendance and punctuality at St James’ Primary school, please see our school Attendance Policy.