Attendance and Punctuality

Pupils with good attendance records benefit from:

• Continuity of learning in lessons and no learning lost
• Improved outcomes
• Support and guidance with reading, writing and mathematics
• Maintaining positive friendships
• Improved confidence
• Developing good habits for their great life

We therefore ask for your support to keep absenteeism to a minimum, so that we can prepare your child achieve a Great Life. Please ensure that all medical appointments are made after school or in the school holidays wherever possible.

• If your child is absent from school you must telephone the school office on 01274 36370, Extension 1, or email [email protected] before 8:30am every day to provide a reason.
• If we receive no confirmation of the reason you will receive a text message and/or phone call home from the school office.
• If we receive no response to telephone calls or text messages a home visit may be carried out.
• If your child is absent for more than 3 days then you will receive a home visit to see if any support is required.
• We monitor attendance daily and weekly. If we are concerned that your child’s attendance is dropping, we will arrange to check in with you.
• If your child’s attendance drops below 90% then your child will be put on the persistent absentee list and further support will be put in place.
• A home visit by the Safeguarding and Welfare Team can be conducted at any point during a child’s absence.

We encourage good school attendance and want to work with families to support this by:

• Informal meetings with families to discuss barriers to attendance
• Ensuring we understood the pupil’s views and any worries they may have about coming to school
• Offering Early Help Support
• Offering Medical Support e.g. sleep, asthma, anxiety etc
• Formal monitoring periods where targets for attendance are given
• Formal attendance contracts
• Formal meetings and attendance panels
• Referral to the Attendance Improvement Officer (Education Safeguarding Team)

If there are still no improvements your case could be passed on to the Local Authority for possible prosecution in either the Family or Magistrates court.

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Gates open at 8.15am and close at 8.26am. School begins at 8.30am when the register is taken. If your child arrives after registration they will receive a late mark. After 8.45am your child will be marked as an unauthorised, and the whole session will be classed as an unauthorised absence.

Our learning starts as soon as the children step into the classroom. We have ‘morning tasks’ where children complete tasks such as practising number facts, times tables, spelling or quizzes on their learning. The teacher explains the visual timetable for the day and goes through the lunch menu.

We understand that sometimes children might be late for unforeseen circumstances, and you will bring your child in through the office if you are late. Please let us know if you think you are going to be late.

When children are regularly late, they can feel embarrassed walking into a classroom that has already begun learning and they can feel upset or distressed if this is happening regularly. Please contact the school if you are struggling to get here on time.

To support families to get children to school on time we can offer:

Breakfast Club – From 7.45am daily, families can drop children at the main office for breakfast club.

Drive and Drop – between 8.15am-8.30am, we invite families to drop off their children on the drive, where staff meet and greet and help children get safely into school.

Unfortunately, holidays will not be authorised for our pupils (unless in exceptional circumstances) as the lessons they miss will have a detrimental effect on their progress and academic success.

Families taking children on holiday in term time must fill in a Leave of Absence Request form. This is so we know the wherabouts of pupils when they are not in school.

If families choose to take an unauthorised leave of absences in term time, then families are at risk of a £60 per child per parent fine from Bradford Council. In a 12 month period, if there are two or more incidents of unauthorised absence or if four or more weeks of unauthorised leave is taken, Bradford Council may start legal proceedings which could be a fine of £2,500 per child per parent, a criminal record and/or a custodial sentence of up to 3 months.