Attendance
General Principles
Good attendance means that children usually make good, consistent progress in their school work.
We rely on our partnership with parents to ensure that this is achieved.
Parents must contact the school if their child is absent by phoning the school office on the first day of absence. If we are uncertain about the whereabouts of a child we MUST, by law, contact the police.
The school must be informed of any planned absence in advance. Any request for essential absence should be made to the school in writing. If a child needs to be taken out of school during the day for an appointment, parents must complete a form available from the school office.
Absence
If a child is ill or absent for any reason parents MUST contact the school by telephone (24hr answer phone) as soon as possible on the first day of the absence.
If the school does do not have prior notification of absence we will contact parents by phone and/or text to confirm the child’s whereabouts. If we are unable to contact parents we may contact the Police.
The law requires that all schools must now show the difference between authorised and unauthorised absence.
Lateness
Being late into school can be distressing for the child and disrupts the normal morning registration process for the whole class.
We contact parents to raise a concern when 5 incidents of lateness of either type occurs. A letter will be sent to parents and a follow up meeting held is necessary to discuss ways to improve timekeeping.
Monitoring Attendance
Registers are taken by teachers directly onto Arbor at the beginning of morning and afternoon school.
Office staff record absences using absence codes as defined in Arbor to correctly record the type of absence.
We aim to encourage 100% attendance in school and have a target of at least 95%. We contact parents to raise a concern when cumulative attendance for the school year falls below 90%. A letter will be sent to parents and a follow up meeting held is necessary to discuss ways to improve attendance.
For any further information regarding attendance, please see our policy below:
