Regular attendance at school is the most important factor in a child reaching their full potential. Any absence including lateness affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect his or her learning. Each child is expected to be in school 100% which is 190 days in the year with no term time holidays. The governments minimum acceptable attendance target for a child is 96.2%.
School times at Green Lane
School starts at 8:45 with doors opening at 8.40am and finishes at 3:15pm.
This is 32.5 hours each week of learning.
Late Arrivals
The register marking time begins at 8.45am and closes at 9.00am. Classroom doors will close at 8.45am. Any child arriving after 8.45am must enter via our main reception. Children arriving after registers have closed at 9.00am will be recorded on our system using a L (Late) code. If a child arrives after 9.15am they will be recorded as late using a U (Unauthorised absence) code with the number of minutes late recorded against the code.
Late Pickups
If parents are late collecting children at the end of the day, the children will be taken to the school office. If a child is collected from the office, parents will be spoken to as the expectation is that you are on time to collect your child. If you are running late then please contact the office so that we know an estimated time of arrival. If a child has not been collected by 3.30pm we will use our contact lists to contact named individuals.
Absence Reporting
Parents need to contact the school as soon as possible on the first day of absence with a full explanation for the absence. If no one is available to answer the phone in the office a voicemail should be left on the school answer phone. Alternatively parents are encouraged to use weduc reporting to report an absence. The school will need to be contacted on each further and subsequent days of absence.
Any verbal information/ notes/letters provided by parents/carers in explanation of absence will be stored on your child’s file. Failure to provide a valid reason for your child’s absence on the first day they are away from school is unacceptable and will result in an unauthorised attendance mark until the school has a reasonable reason for absence.
Where a child’s absence is a cause for concern this will be communicated to you via a letter in the first instance, with follow up meetings if attendance does not improve.
Illness
It can be difficult deciding whether to keep your child off school when they are unwell.
If you do keep your child at home, it’s important to contact the school as detailed above and let us know the reason for the absence. If you do not contact us, then we will be contacting you to check on your child’s well-being.
If your child is well enough to come to school but has an infection that could be passed on, such as a cold sore or head lice, let their teacher know.
There are some illnesses for which specific guidelines apply:
Chickenpox
Keep your child off school until the spots have crusted over, this is usually about 5 days after the spots first appear.
Vomiting and/or diarrhoea
Children with diarrhoea or vomiting should stay away from school for 2 days after their symptoms have gone. This means they can return to school 48 hours after the last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.
Unauthorised Absences
If your child is absent, and we have not been notified as to why (see above for notification procedure), we will:
- Telephone you on the first day of absence (and on subsequent days) until an explanation is provided.
- We may conduct well-being visits to the family home
- Write to you if we are concerned about your child’s attendance or an emerging pattern of high level absence.
- Invite you into school to discuss the situation with our Head Teacher and/or Deputy Head Teacher/Educational Welfare Officer if absences persist.
It is vitally important that children maintain a good level of attendance so that they do not miss out on key learning. See the image below which shows how attendance impacts attainment and progress.
Leave of Absence During Term Time
Parents are strongly urged to avoid taking leave during term time. Parents do not have the right to take their child out of school and no requests for holidays will be authorised during term time.
If you wish for leave of absence then you must fill in a form from the school office and you will be invited to a meeting with Mrs Conway (headteacher) to discuss this request.
Parents should request leave of absence in advance and all requests should be submitted at least two weeks before the first day of intended absence using the form.
If your child has unauthorised leave of absence you will either be issued with a Penalty Notice of £120 per parent per child (discounted to £60 if paid within 21 days), or, your case will be referred by the Local Authority directly to the Magistrates’ Court.
The Education Welfare Office have issued this statement about children who are repeatedly taken out of school –
‘Where a child has had 2 periods of unauthorised leave for which the parent has been issued with a Penalty Notice (for each occasion), on the third occasion, no Penalty Notice will be issued and that parent will be taken straight to Court under the higher-level aggravated offence. This means that the parent may be subject to a much more severe penalty i.e. a maximum fine of up to £2,500 or 3 months in custody or, a community order which may involve them doing a number of hours of unpaid work.’
The school, the Local Authority and the DfE take attendance very seriously. We have a dedicated Attendance Team in school comprising of Mrs Conway (Headteacher), Miss Chauhan (Attendance Lead) and Mrs Ismail (Office Manager). We monitor the attendance of all children and where we have concerns we work with families to support improvement.