Attendance and Punctuality

Introduction

Barrowford St Thomas’ CE Primary school is a successful school and your child plays their part in making it so. We aim for an environment in which pupils feel valued and part of the school community and which enables and encourages everybody to reach out for excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and your child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.

It is very important therefore that you make sure that your child attends regularly and this policy sets out how together we will achieve this. 

Why Regular Attendance is so important:

Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence also disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of others in the same class.

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

Promoting Regular Attendance:

Helping to create a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility - parents, pupils and all members of school staff.

To help us all to focus on this we will:

• Promote a culture across the school which identifies the importance of regular and punctual attendance;
• Notify you if your child’s attendance is in danger of falling below our target of 96.36% unless we are aware of circumstances, which make this unavoidable.
• Further develop positive and consistent communication between home and school
• Make attendance and punctuality a priority for everyone associated with school, including parents, pupils, staff and governors.
• Set targets to improve individual pupil and whole-school attendance. 

Lateness:

Poor punctuality is not acceptable. If your child misses the start of the day they can miss work and do not spend time with their class teacher getting vital information and news for the day. Late arriving pupils also disrupt lessons, which can be embarrassing for the child and can in turn, encourage absence.  Being 10 minutes late every day throughout the academic year is the same as missing two weeks of school.

Leave in Term Time:

Taking a child out of school in term time will affect their schooling as much as any other absence and we expect parents to help us by not taking children away in school time.

Remember that any savings you think you may make by taking a holiday in school time are offset by the cost to your child’s education.

There is no automatic entitlement in law to take leave during school time.

All applications for leave must be made, in advance, by the parent of residence using the 'Request for leave of absence' form, available from the school office.  It can also be downloaded below.

It is important that parents understand that leave in term time will not be agreed by us at any time unless circumstances surrounding the request can be evidenced, by parents, to be exceptional.  Therefore, parents are advised to provide school with any relevant information regarding their request at the point of application if they believe the circumstances are exceptional.  Information provided after a decision has been made may not be considered.