Attendance
As a school, we expect children to attend every session available to them in order to benefit from the educational opportunities provided. Consistent loss of learning hours could have a detrimental effect on a child's educational progress. In the unlikely event that you need to take your child out of school during term time an 'Application for leave of Absence' form must be submitted one week prior to the absence. We cannot authorise absence for holidays. Leave is only granted for exceptional circumstances, please read the form carefully before submitting and attach the relevant evidence to support your request. If your child is absent for a medical appointment please provide evidence of the appointment.
Reporting your child absent
Queen Boudica has an absence line for parents/carers to use. Please can parents/carers phone in by 9:20 am on every day of absence and leave a message. The phone number is 01206 844654; an automated set of instructions will tell you how to leave a message.
A message will be sent home via SchoolPing if we have not received a reason for absence.
If we are not provided with a reason for absence the session will be recorded as an 'unauthorised' absence.
If we are unable to contact parents it may be necessary to carry out a home welfare check or contact the police.
Medical Appointments
Pupils need to be to signed in by an adult at reception if they are late for school or if they are leaving school during the day, either for a medical appointment or other reasons. We would really appreciate medical and dental appointments not being made during the school day wherever possible. However, we understand that this is not always something that you can control. Afternoon appointments are best because students are likely to miss less of the school day. Please ensure you provide school with evidence of medical appointments. As a school we only authorise a maximum of half a day for a single medical appointment; there are exceptions to this if a pupil is having a course of lengthy or specialist medical treatment.
Persistant Absence
The Department for Education identifies attendance below 90% as ‘persistent absence’. If a pupil was to end the academic school year on 90% attendance, this would equate to four whole weeks off school. This would mean 20 days, or over 100 hours, of missed learning. If your child's attendance falls below 90% they will be monitored by the Education Welfare Officer and you will be invited to attend a School Attendance Meeting (SAM). At this meeting we will look for opportunities to support an improvement in attendance. Further unauthorised absence may lead to the prosecution of the parent/carer for failing to ensure adequate attendance of the child. Further details on the formal stages of our attendance procedures may be found in our Attendance Policy.
Punctuality
All pupils are expected to arrive at school no later than 8:55 am ready to start the school day. Children arriving after this time are marked as late.
If your child is NOT in Year 5 or 6 they will need to be signed in at reception by an adult.
Pupils arriving late to school cause disruption to their learning as well as others, which is unacceptable and can be upsetting for them and their classmates.
How much is your child missing?
Regular attendance is a legal requirement and is of utmost importance to a child's education. The Department of Education evidences 'that pupils who have good attendance enjoy better wellbeing. and school performance than those who don't'. Please take time to look at the link to the DfE education hub article: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/category/attendance/ .