Attendance / Lateness

ATTENDANCE / LATENESS

Attendance at school by children and young people is essential in order that they receive the education to which they are entitled. The health, safety and well-being of children and young people at school, and before and after school must be protected and promoted to enable them to benefit from the educational opportunities available.

Parents/Carers, schools and the Council all have a part to play in maximising attendance. In order to maximise attendance and health, safety and well-being, parents/carers, schools, the Council and partner agencies must work in partnership. This leaflet sets out the relative roles and responsibilities of parents/carers, schools and the Council.

Parents and Carers will be responsible for providing schools with a suitable emergency contact number and should ensure that this is kept up to date. An Annual Update Form will be sent home each September but any changes outwith this time should be updated via the School Secretary.

Aims Specific to Attendance

To ensure that pupils attend school as regularly and punctually as possible.
To ensure that parents, carers and pupils are aware of procedures for reporting lateness and absence.
To ensure that unreasonable absences/lateness are followed up and investigated.

To ensure that staff implement attendance/lateness procedures consistently.

Procedures for Absence

The Council will monitor attendance for the purposes of ensuring the provision of an appropriate education and maximise child safety through its Attendance Policy. The steps to be taken by the Council in the event of failure to attend school without good reason are set out in that policy.

Parents/Carers are requested to telephone the school if a child if to be absent before 9.30am.

If no notification is received before 9.30am the School Secretary will attempt to contact the childs Parent/Carer to ascertain the reason for absence. If no contact can be made the school Secretary will pass details of the child to the Attendance Officer who will endeavour to ascertain the reason for absence.
Parent/Carer to send a note with reason for absence to school on the first day the child returns.
When Class Teacher received notification of Reasons for Absence he/she will amend the register and put note/reason for absence slip into register in order that the School Secretary has evidence to amend computer records.

Procedures for Lateness

A child will be marked late in the register if he/she come to school more than 5 minutes after the morning/afternoon bell.
If a child is late more than 4 times in a month the Head Teacher will discuss the issue with the Parents/Carers.
If a child continues to be late after the Head Teacher has discussed the issue with parents, the support of the Attendance Officer will be enlisted.

Playground Supervision

The school shall try to ensure so far as possible that there is supervision in the playground 20 minutes before the start of the school day. Parents and Carers are responsible for ensuring that their children are not waiting on or outside school premises for more than 20 minutes before the start of the school day.

Exclusion

Parents and Carers are responsible for making arrangement for the supervision and care of pupils during periods of exclusion.

Holidays During Term Time

An increasing number of parents are requesting leave of absence for their children to accompany them on family holidays. These absences have serious implications for the education of all pupils. When pupils are withdrawn during term time there is disruption to the learning process which can result in the pupil falling behind. This could have a detrimental effect on pupils’ confidence and self esteem. There is a belief, on the parents’ behalf, that this time can be made up by the school providing ‘work’ for the pupil to complete during this holiday period. However, this does not have the desired effect because the pupil has missed out on quality teaching time. Written work of this type must be based on work already taught and will, at the best, only provide extra practice. On return to school, extra time has to be spent by the class teacher in order to compensate for the gap in education. This may involve individual teaching for the pupil concerned or the re-teaching of lessons to the remainder of the group or class. There are, therefore, obvious implications for the sustained progression of all pupils.

Catriona McKinnon

Head Teacher

August 2010