Crabtree Farm Primary | Attendance Information

Attendance Information

Weekly Attendance

Why is attendance important?

Children who attend school regularly and punctually achieve more than those who do not. A 2 week absence over the year will reduce your child's attendance to 95%. and will impact on their ability to reach their full potential.

You can help by ensuring that your child attends school on time every day. This means being in the classroom and ready to learn at 9.00 a.m.

Please do not allow your child to have any unnecessary days absence, for example, days off for birthdays, parents appointments, visitors to the home etc. because the school is unable to authorise any absence of this nature. If you need to make alternative arrangements for the care of your child before school opens we may be able to assist you by allowing your child to attend Breakfast Club.

Lateness and absence procedures

Parents/Carers are responsible for getting their children to school on time.

Procedure for late children:

Class doors open at 8:50 am, to allow the children time to get coats off and get settled before registers are taken at 9:00 am.

If your children arrives after 9:00 am they will be greeted at the school gate, details taking and issued with a late pass. Your child should then walk to their class via the playground.

If your child arrives after 9:15 am they should report to the school office where they will need to be signed in (using our electronic system) and taken to class.

Procedure if a child is staying at home because of illness:

On the first day of absence (and every day afterwards until they return) a parent or carer should notify school by telephone: 0115 9155737, or sending a message via the School Gateway App informing school that their child is absent and giving the reason(s) why - as well as stating what the likely day of return will be. It is the parent/carers responsibility to make sure a satisfactory reason is given or the absence will be marked as unauthorised.

If a telephone call or text message is not received, school will contact parents/carers to enquire about their child’s absence. Please provide at least two contacts in case of an emergency.

If we have any queries regarding the absence or we have not received a reason, we will follow this up with a telephone call or a home visit.

Day to day

If a child is not in school by 9.30am we have a duty of care to ensure that all children are safe. You may have seen the sad and tragic reports recently in the news, this has meant now all schools must ring and speak to an adult if a child is not accounted for. The government has now stated we must have at least 3 up to date contact numbers and if none of these are answered we could make a home visit or request a police safe and well check.
Parents are invited to call or meet with a member of the attendance team to discuss individual health concerns or other reasons for excessive absence.

To keep your child's attendance within the 96% expected by the end of the school year, parents/carers are reminded to, where possible, make medical appointments outside of school time. If this is not possible, please remember pupils get two marks for attendance every day and they would get at least one of them if they were brought to school before and or after their appointment.

If your child has an unavoidable appointment or has been absent on medical grounds, school may ask for proof e.g an appointment letter or medication prescribed by a G.P. This is to support authorisation of the absence.

Holidays

We would like to remind you that Crabtree Farm Primary School do not give permission for family holidays during term time. Any time taken for a family holiday will be recorded as unauthorised. If attendance is below 90% at the end of the school year and 10% or more is unauthorised the Education Welfare Officer could prosecute. A letter will be sent to the parents of children with less than 90% attendance to advise that their attendance will be monitored for improvement or you will be invited to a meeting to discuss the issues. Children with attendance dipping below 90% without genuine reasons for absence will be passed to the Education Welfare Officer, who can take the matter to court and a fine could be issued.

A ‘Leave of Absence request form’ needs to be completed four weeks prior to the leave. Holidays will only be accepted if there are exceptional circumstances.