SCHOOL ATTENDANCE MATTERS

 

We welcome all children into our school, and we are an extended family that supports you and your child to attend school every day.  We uphold the importance of attendance, and we are extremely proud of our track record for being within the top 3 schools for the highest attendance for Southampton each year.  Our aim is for at least 97% attendance each week.

All of our staff support our children in coming to school and are responsible for attendance.  We work really hard on our curriculum to give our children the best learning opportunities and they want to come to schoo.  The leads for our school attendance are:

Admissions and Attendance lead - Mr R Lomath

Attendance Champion - Mrs C Gregory

 

We know that there are some days when children find coming to school tricky. Our Behaviour and Relationships policy underpins our Attendance Policy.  Our provision and practice is embedded across our school to enable the children to use the taught strategies when they have this tricky day.  Research shows that constant morning routines support children transitioning from home to school.  

Every child is welcomed into school.  Class adults stand on the classroom doors to welcome each child or support the child who is having a difficult start to transitioning from home to school.  There are always adults at the school gates to support families being seen and welcomed into school each day.  Staff are there to support this transition. 

We know that some children find it hard to come back to school after a school holiday.  Every Monday after a school holiday, we welcome the children into a focus MOOT or Play Project session.  Year R has MOOT and Key Stage one has a Play Project.  This enables consistency for the children to know what they are coming into.  This also means staff are more available to be with children and support their return to school or have check-ins with the children.

 

SOUTHAMPTON PRIMARY SCHOOL RANKINGS FOR ATTENDANCE

 

At Shirley Infant School we are very proud of our attendance record.

We hope that all of our existing and future parents and pupils will join us in continuing to strive to maintain our current position.  Please take time to read the following information and look at our action plan to support our children's attendance to be in their school every day.

It is also essential not to be late so that important learning time isn't lost.  Did you know that:

 

If, every day, your child is:	In a year, your child would lose the following days of education:
5 minutes late	3 days
10 minutes late	6.5 days
15 minutes late	10 days
25 minutes late	13 days
30 minutes late	19.5 days

School opening times

The school door opens at 8:40am.

Children must be in class and ready to start lessons by 8:50am. After this time, all children must enter via the office and be signed in by a parent or guardian.

The first lessons of the day are numeracy and phonics, as this is when the children learn best.

Children arriving after 9:20am will be marked as unauthorised absence for the whole morning session.

All children are expected to attend school EVERYDAY throughout the academic year.

Illness

Parents must notify the school by telephone each day by 9:30am if a child will be absent from school due to illness.

Medical evidence of illness may be requested for children that are absent for more than 3 successive days.

Medicine can be given to children at school at the following times to coincide with their breaks;

10:30am / 12:00pm / 2:30pm

We would encourage parents to consider carefully if their child is actually well enough to attend school with medication.

We expect ALL appointments, with the exception of hospital appointments, to be made outside of normal school hours.

Leave of Absence Requests

Parents have a legal duty to ensure regular and punctual attendance by their child at school.

Holidays should be taken during the school holiday period and there is no entitlement for any family holidays or leave of absence during term time.  Requests for holiday will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Applications must be made at least 3 weeks in advance using the application for leave form available from the school office.

The Headteacher will consider each request on its merits but will usually only be agreed in exceptional circumstances.

No authorised absence will be given during Year 11 or KS1/KS2 SAT’s periods, this will include all siblings in the family.  Schools within Jefferys Education Partnership will liaise with each other regarding this.

Managing Attendance

All of the schools within the Jefferys Education Partnership have agreed template letters & protocols for managing attendance.

On a half termly basis or as required letters are sent out to parents of those pupils falling below certain levels.  This approach is applied across the whole school regardless of the child's age.  A child does not become of compulsory school age until they turn 5, however once a child has been admitted to school they are filling a school place and are expected to attend every day possible.  Ofsted places a high level of importance on school attendance and hence so do we as a school.  The below protocol allows the school to ensure that they can evidence to Ofsted that we manage attendance effectively.

The schools within Jefferys Education Partnership have two agreed thresholds for distributions of letters to parents and guardians.

• Attendance falls below 95% - Letter sent that makes parents aware that their child's attendance has fallen below this level.  The child's registration certificate is included with this letter.  The letter clearly states that this is provided for information only.  The school sends this letter out at regular intervals throughout the year to ensure that any discrepancies in the attendance data of a child can be discussed at an early juncture and rectified prior to publication of the end of year academic reports.
• Attendance falls below 90% - When a child's attendance falls below 90% they are classified as a persistent absentee.  At this point it becomes necessary for the school to report on the child's absence to the Attendance Support Officer at the Jefferys Education Partnership.  The school sends this template letter to parents or guardians to make them aware that this will happen.  This letter also reminds parents and guardians of their legal duties regarding school attendance.

When the school has concerns of a serious nature a meeting with the Headteacher and the Attendance Officer will be arranged to discuss and to establish how we can support the family to improve attendance.  If necessary the school will refer attendance concerns to the Attendance Support Officer at the Jefferys Education Partnership.

Fixed Penalty Notices

Fixed Penalty Notices were introduced by Southampton Local Authority in September 2005 as an alternative to prosecution.

All students who have 10 sessions (ie. 5 days) of unauthorised absence may be liable to receive a fixed penalty notice which incurs a monetary penalty per parent per child.

A copy of the full attendance policy is available from the school or on the website.