School Attendance
Attendance
Why is Good School Attendance so Important?
At St Peter and St Paul we continually strive to improve our attendance levels so that each child is given the opportunity to achieve their full potential. By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. Once your child is registered at school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly and on time. If your child fails to do so, you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted.
Good attendance is a skill for life and attendance has an impact on a child's whole school experience. As well as affecting your child's academic potential, poor or irregular attendance can have an impact on your child's friendships, self-esteem and confidence.
We monitor the attendance of every child in the school and aim for all children to have 96% attendance or better. If we have concerns about your child's attendance then, in the first instance we will contact you, however if your child's attendance continues to pose a problem we will request that you attend an Attendance Panel.
Procedures
It is very important to develop good routines for getting to school every day and on time. Parking around school is very limited, so if you have to travel by car please allow for this. The school gates are open from 8.25am ready for children to be in their classrooms at 8.30am when registration starts. Children who arrive at school after the gate has been closed (8.45am) will be considered as late. Children who arrive after 9.15am will be registered as an 'unathorised absence' for the morning session.
If your child is unwell, please phone the school before 9.30am; if you don't do this, the school will contact you to find out where your child is.
If your child becomes unwell during the day, we will contact you to come and collect them. Please ensure that we always have up-to-date telephone numbers for you.
Please be aware that we may ask for proof of illness or ask to speak to you if your child's attendance is causing concern.
Request for Withdrawal from Learning
The law does not grant parents an automatic right to take their child out of school during term time. All requests for withdrawal from learning will be unauthorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. In these very exceptional circumstances head teachers may agree up to a maximum of 10 days of absence. Please be aware that neither holidays nor visiting family abroad are considered to be 'exceptional circumstances' and will not be authorised. Parents who go ahead with the absence when it has been unathorised may incur a fine - Penalty Notice - of £160 per child, per parent. If the fine remains unpaid, legal and court action can follow. After two Penalty Notices have been issued within a 3 year rolling period further action will be taken and may include a Parenting Order or an Education Supervision Order.
Please click here for a summary of the rules regarding attendance.
