Fairness Kindness Respect Service Forgiveness

/ Our vision
Our vision is to be a Christian school providing an education of the highest quality, where our children will recognise their talents and achieve their fullest potential

Fairness ~ Kindness ~ Respect ~ Service ~ Forgiveness

.

September 2013

School Attendance
Authorised Date / Review Date / Coordinator / Nominated Governor
Mar 2014 / Mar 2016 / Kate Hockley / Julia Turner

INDEX

1. Mission Statement Page 3

2. Rights and Responsibilities Page 3

3. RegistrationPage 4

4. Authorised and Unauthorised

absencesPage 5

5.Absence procedure Page 5

6.LatenessPage 6

7.Holidays during term timePage 6

Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide:-

• A school environment that encourages learning and recognizes that every child has individual talents and needs.
• A broad, well balanced and challenging curriculum.
• A healthy, happy and secure environment where children can flourish.
• A school that has a strong, positive relationship with home, the Church and the local community, maintaining its place at the heart of the villages it serves.
• Effective and challenging leadership.
• Prudent and effective management of resources to ensure that the School continues to prosper and improve.

Rights and Responsibilities

School will:

• Care for each child’s safety and happiness.
• Encourage the children to do their best at all times.
• Encourage children to respect others around them and take care of their surroundings.
• Inform parents of their child’s progress at regular meetings and by the end of the year with a written report.
• Inform parents about what teachers aim to teach their child.
• As a church school, to underpin the ideals of Christian concern and love.

The family will:

• Make sure that their child arrives at school properly equipped (named uniform etc) and in time to start school at 8.40 a.m.
• Make sure that their child attends regularly, telephones by 9.30 am. on the first morning of absence and sends a note explaining the reason for absence on the day that the child returns to school.
• Make all reasonable efforts to arrange medical appointments outside school time and to book family holidays during the school holidays.
• Make every effort to attend Parent Consultation Evenings to discuss their child’s progress and make the school aware of any circumstances that might affect their child’s progress in school.
• Support their child with their reading and other homework.
• Parents will support the school’s Behaviour Policy (as outlined in school prospectus).

The pupil will:

• Follow the school and class rules.
• Do all my class work and homework as well as I can.
• Wear the school uniform and look tidy.

Registration:

Class Registers

These are marked at the beginning of each school session:

8.50 a.m. each morning

1.00 p.m. each afternoon

/Present.

0Unauthorised absence.

G Unauthorised family holiday

LLate.

ULate (after close of registers)

MMedical/Dentist.

IIllness.

VEducational Visit.

AAuthorised absence.

YEnforced closure.

The Education Welfare Officer (EWO) inspects the registers termly.

Dinner Registers

The class teacher completes these each morning. These are returned to the office and absences checked.

In/Out Procedure

The visitor’s log book is used to record adults who leave the premises during the school day. Pupils leaving the premises throughout the day are recorded in the signing in/out book in the office.

If a pupil leaves the school premises after registration they would still be counted as present for statistical purposes. However, for health and safety reasons the class teacher and office must be made aware that a pupil has left the school premises using office whiteboard.

Parent/Helper Register

A register is kept of those who help at school and helpers should sign in and collect a visitor’s badge to wear whilst in school.

Visitors

A visitor’s book is kept in the reception area of the school. All visitors should sign in at the school office and wear a visitor’s badge.

Legal Status of Registers

It is the responsibility of the class teacher to register the attendance of pupils.

Attendance information is collated by our admin assistant in the School office whose responsibility it is to make the absence returns to the DfE.

Understanding Authorised and Unauthorised Absences:

Every half-day absence from school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents), as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of any absence is always requested and it is a legal requirement.

Authorised Absences

These are mornings or afternoons away from school illness, medical or dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, emergencies or other unavoidable cause.

Unauthorised Absences

These are absences which the school and the governors, following Government guidelines, do not consider reasonable and for which no “leave” has been given. This type of absence can lead to the Local Authority using sanctions and/or legal proceedings including penalty notices and fines.

Unauthorised absence includes:

-Parents/carers keeping their children off school unnecessarily e.g. because they had a late night or for non-infectious illness or injury that would not affect their ability to learn;

-Absences which have never been properly explained;

-Children who arrive at school too late to get registered;

-Shopping trips/day trips;

-Looking after other children or children accompanying siblings or parents to medical appointments;

-Their own or family birthdays;

-Holidays in term time.

Absence Procedure:

- All absences should be notified to the school either by telephone,e-mail, in personat the office or in writing before 9.30 a.m. The school has an answer phone available to leave a message if nobody is available to take your call. All absence messages are recorded on the office white board for cross reference with the registers.

- Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9:30 a.m.

- Ensure your child returns to school as soon as possible.

- Confirm the reasons for absence, in writing, when your child returns to school.

Where possible,all medical appointments should be made outside of school hours. Requests for pupils to be allowed out of school should be sent to the school prior to the appointment and evidence of appointments may be requested. Pupils will be released from school in sufficient time to attend the appointment and should return to school after the appointments.

The Headteacher and Chair of Governors will review requests for absence and monitor the attendance records. Excessive amounts of unauthorised absences by pupils or emerging patterns of authorised absences will be examined.Attendance records are discussed as a regular agenda item at the full governors meetings.

If patterns of absence emerge, the school will initially ask for a letter of explanation. If absences continue, the governors and Education Welfare Officer (EWO) will be informed and contact made with parents.

Parents/carers who may have difficulty in providing notes or dislike using the telephone and cannot make personal contact must make alternative arrangements with the Headteacher.

Lateness:

The school bell will ring at 8.40 a.m. and registration will follow immediately. The register will be held open for ten minutes and if children miss registration and fail to provide an acceptable explanation they are marked absent by the teacher. This is regarded as an unauthorized absence. Late arrivals will inform the office of their presence and explanation in the lateness book. This will be recorded in the register as late, so monitoring can take place.

If a pattern emerges, this is to be investigated by the admission’s committee and Headteacher. If late arrival stems from difficulties at home or other genuinely unavoidable circumstances, the Headteacher will need to respond sensitively to the relative issues.

Where pupils persistently fail to arrive on time without valid reason, the Headteacher will:

• Initially seek an early meeting with parents/carers to outline legal responsibility.
• Seek advice/help from the Education Welfare Officer (EWO) and inform governors.

Holidays During Term Time

There is no longer any entitlement in law for pupils to take time off during the term to go on holiday.

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 have been amended from 1st September 2013. All references to family holidays and extended leave have been removed, together with the right for parents/carers to apply for up to ten days holiday during term time.

The amendments specify that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. Each application is considered individually by the school. The following are examples of the criteria for leave of absence which may be considered as “exceptional”:

-Service personnel returning from active deployment.

-Where inflexibility of a parent’s leave or working arrangements is part of the organisational or company policy. This would need to be evidenced by the production or confirmation from the organisation/company.

-Where leave is recommended as part of a parent’s or child’s rehabilitation from medical or emotional problems. Evidence must be provided.

-When a family needs to spend time together to support each other during or after a crisis.

Being away during term time will disrupt children’s education and they may never catch up on work missed. A two week holiday in term time would mean that your child would miss at least 50 hours of education. Remember every day is important.

School work will not be provided for children who are absent due to holiday.

If an absence is not authorized and the holiday is taken anyway, the case will be referred to the Education Welfare Service who may issue a Penalty Notice to each parent for each child taken out of school.

This policy will be reviewed by the Headteacher and Strategic Committee and will be reviewed every two years.

This policy has been reviewed and agreed by the Strategic Committee on 21st January 2014.

This policy has been adopted by the Full Governing Body on 12th March 2014.

………………………………………………………….. Signed on behalf of the FGB.