Attendance

Your child attendance and education is important to us.

The bell for the start of the school day will be at 8.40am and this is when classroom doors will be opened. The school gates will open at 8.30am.  

At the end of the day the school gates will be opened at 3.05pm for you to collect your children from their classrooms at 3.15pm. 

Recording attendance

 We will keep an attendance register, and place all pupils onto this register. We will take our attendance register at the start of the first session of each school day and once during the second session. It will mark whether every pupil is:  ● Present ● Attending an approved off-site educational activity ● Absent ● Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances

Pupils must arrive in school by 8.40am on each school day. The register for the first session will be taken at 8.55am and will be kept open until 9.10am. The register for the second session will be taken at 1.00pm and will be kept open until 1.10pm.

Unplanned absence

The pupil’s parent/carer must notify the school of the reason for the absence on the first day of an unplanned absence by 9.00am or as soon as practically possible by calling the school staff.

We will mark absence due to illness as authorised unless the school has a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness. If the authenticity of the illness is in doubt, the school may ask the pupil’s parent/carer to provide medical evidence, such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence.

We will not ask for medical evidence unnecessarily. If the school is not satisfied about the authenticity of the illness, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents/carers will be notified of this in advance.

Planned absence

Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment. We ask that you email the office or telephone to let us know about the appointment. However, we encourage parents/carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

Lateness and punctuality

A pupil who arrives late:

● Before the register has closed will be marked as late, using the appropriate code

● After the register has closed will be marked as absent, using the appropriate code

The register closes at 9.10 am.

Pupils who are consistently late are disrupting not only their own education but also that of the other pupils. On-going and repeated lateness is considered as unauthorised absence and will be subject to legal action (see Hampshire’s Code of Conduct section for further detail).

Parents, guardians or carers of pupils who have patterns of lateness will be contacted to discuss the importance of good time keeping and how this might be achieved. If lateness persists, parents, guardians or carers will be invited to attend the school and discuss the problem and support offered. If support is not appropriate or is declined and a child has 10 or more sessions of unauthorised absence due to lateness recorded in any 10 week period the school or Hampshire County Council will be required to issue parents with a penalty notice in accordance with Hampshire’s Code of Conduct for issuing penalty notices for non-attendance.

Following up unexplained absence

Where any pupil we expect to attend school does not attend, or stops attending, without reason, the school will:  

Call the pupil’s parent/carer on the morning of the first day of unexplained absence to ascertain the reason. If the school cannot reach any of the pupil’s emergency contacts, the school may contact police.

Identify whether the absence is approved or not identify the correct attendance code to use and input it as soon as the reason for absence is ascertained – this will be no later than 5 working days after the session

Call the parent/carer on each day that the absence continues without explanation to ensure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary. If absence continues, the school will consider involving an education welfare officer

Reporting to parents/carers

The school will regularly inform parents about their child’s attendance and absence levels.  We regularly monitor and analyse attendance and absence data to identify pupils that require support with their attendance and put effective strategies in place.

Authorised and unauthorised absence

Approval for term-time absence The headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to a pupil during term time if they consider there to be 'exceptional circumstances'. A leave of absence is granted at the headteacher’s discretion, including the length of time the pupil is authorised to be absent for. The school considers each application for term-time absence individually, taking into account the specific facts, circumstances and relevant context behind the request. Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least one week before the absence, and in accordance with any leave of absence request form, accessible via the school office. The headteacher may require evidence to support any request for leave of absence.

This follows the advice of The Department for Education. They strongly discourage term-time holidays:

“Schools must remember that they can only approve absence for family holidays if they consider that there are special reasons which warrant the holiday.

Holiday prices and the fact that parents have booked a holiday before checking with the school are not special reasons. Absence for a family holiday can result in pupils with poor attendance becoming persistent absentees.”

(Further information on advice regarding attendance is available on the DfE website. A copy of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 is available on the UK Statute Law Database.)

Appointments

Routine medical appointments:  Please make these for outside of school hours where possible and supply in advance a copy of any appointment letters/cards/text/emails that your child needs to attend during school hours.

Emergency appointments:  Please advise school by phone if your child will not be attending school before the appointment and then supply a copy of the appointment.

Unfortunately we are unable to authorise absence due to sibling/parent appointments.

Absence from school really does affect your child’s progress, and usually, they will not be able to catch up on any lessons that they have missed.

1 day a week away from school = 39 days a year or 7 weeks and 4 days of missed lessons, that’s ½ term of learning lost!

Equally:

15 minutes late every day = one whole literacy or numeracy lesson lost every week!

Guide to criteria for non-attendance leading to a penalty notice possibly being given.

• 10 sessions (5 school days) of unauthorised absence, including unauthorised holiday, during a period of 100 school sessions. The absences do not need to be consecutive.
• Persistently late for up to 10 sessions after the register has closed. Automatically unauthorised if arriving after 9.10 am and, if continued lateness before 9.30am, after the school and parent have tried to resolve any issues causing it.
• Any absence during formal testing or examinations where the dates have been published in advance.

 

We would try and ensure that we work with you to resolve any problems that may attribute to non-attendance/lateness before taking this last line of action.