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Attendance
The profile of attending school has raised this academic year and good attendance is celebrated on a weekly basis in celebration assemblies. We have a weekly attendance trophy for the best class attendance and we give awards for 100% attendance at the end of each half term.
We encourage parents to book holidays during school holiday periods and ask you to be honest about your child's absence from school.
We thought you'd appreciate some more information on term-time absences, as some of you will have received letters regarding your children's attendance and punctuality.
Absences due to illness are unavoidable in most cases. There are also times when a child is ill in school and we have to ask you to pick them up early. And, of course, the '48-hour rule' applies when pupils are physically sick or have an upset tummy.
But there's no getting away from the fact that good attendance and punctuality is vital to good progress. This page explains school's position in this area, and our official duties and responsibilities to the Department for Education (DfE) and Salford Local Authority.
Reporting an absence
There are several ways a parent or carer can inform us of absence::
- by telephone, in which case the office staff record this information and communicate it to the teachers;
- by text;
- by email;
- by personal contact.
For safeguarding reasons, it really is vital that you let us know each day why your child is absent from school. If we don't hear from parents, we'll text first and then ring to ensure that they are safe at home.
In some cases, if we're particularly worried or have not had a response from a text or phone call, we will visit your home and then, if necessary inform social care and the police, who can do a welfare check on a child, at our request. This is something we don't want to have to do, but we have a duty of care to follow up on the absence if we're at all concerned.
Attendance records
There are several codes in use for recording attendance and absences. Two are recorded each day, for the morning and afternoon sessions. Here are the most common.
- Code M: appointment with a doctor or dentist, etc.
- Code I: genuine illness.
- Code G: unauthorised holiday.
- Code L: late before register closes.
- Code U: late after register closes. This counts as an unauthorised absence.
- Code O: other unauthorised absence, or no reason given
- Code H: authorised holiday
- Code C: other circumstances
Looking at this from a parent's perspective, it really is essential that you let us know the reason for absence, otherwise it has to be marked on the register as an 'O'.
Letters to parents regarding absence
We send out letters to parents whose child's attendance has fallen to 96% or below. This could have been due to a holiday at the beginning of the year or a spell of illness, particularly in the Autumn and Spring terms when the flu and cold bugs are thriving. We will also update you each half term with out 'Traffic Light' letter informing you whether your child's absence is
- Green (96% and above) - Congratulations, your child has attained a strong attendance level.
- Amber (90% to 96%) - Your child is below our 96% attendance threshold. We understand this may be due to a couple of days of sickness absence. We hope their attendance picks up.
- Red (Below 90%) - Your child’s attendance is well below the 96% threshold. Unless a rapid improvement is made you will be invited to meet with me to discuss attendance and your case may be referred to the Education Welfare Officer
Term-time absences
In line with Government and Local Education Authority policy, any holidays taken in school time have to be recorded as an unauthorised absence. Our school is accountable to the DfE and Salford Local Authority (LA) for attendance.
Holidays in term-time are the main reason for lower attendance. Please see our Attendance Policy for further details regarding Leave of Absence during term-time.
Impact of absences
Absences do affect how well children do in school. On the face of it, 90% attendance looks reasonable. But if you stretch that out over a child's time in school, 90% from Reception to Y9 means that a child has missed a whole school year!
Normally, lessons in school are progressive. At the start of a new topic, children learn the first ideas and 'building blocks' which are then built on over a week or term to help each child secure their knowledge and skills. Later, more advanced lessons rely on this earlier understanding to move the children forward. Absences cause gaps in children's understanding which then have to be filled in. Essentially, they're playing catch-up. This means that a Teaching Assistant who normally works with a particular group or child may need to be reassigned so that the child who was absent can have the extra input they need to catch up. In these cases, the absence is impacting on other children's education too.
Further guidance
For every school, the issue of children's absences is always difficult; but please be assured that our intent here is not to upset anyone, nor to be heavy-handed or awkward. Our intent is to keep you informed about our duty to your children as learners, yourselves as parents and also to the authorities that regulate school. We implore anyone who is struggling to get their child into school to contact their child's class teacher initially (and then Mrs Drake if the situation doesn’t improve) to discuss the reasons and work on ways to improve attendance.
- Is My Child Too Ill For School? Please click on the link if your child is feeling unwell...