Attendance
Our aim is to bring the best out of every pupil that attends Duchy of Lancaster
FIRST DAY OF ABSENCE CONTACT PROCEDURE
Parent/carers are responsible for the safe arrival and collection of their children to and from the school site. School does provide some outdoor supervision for first aid purposes from 8.35am until 8.45am, but official responsibility for pupils does not engage until pupils enter the school buildings through their designated entrances.
Parents are of course reminded of these arrangements (specific entrances and timings) through school newsletters.
For older pupils who may walk to school without adults, if a child has unauthorised absence or is not arriving on time, then school may request a parent make alternate arrangements. Likewise, if school has concerns about pre or post school arrangements (children not walking home safely, or being required to key hold etc inappropriate to their age or maturity) then again home contact may be made to discuss this.
It is in the interests of pupil safety and wellbeing that home school communications allow school to be clear about the whereabouts of every child every day and we have a legal responsibility to maintain accurate attendance registers.
It is a parental responsibility to inform school if their child is unable to attend statutory schooling.
However, if contact from home is not received, school will make first day of absence contact with families to secure information on the absence and code registers accordingly.
School will contact parents via telephone in the first instance and all recorded contacts if no contact can be made. If no contact can be made, then the school could carry out a home welfare check in line with safeguarding. If there is still no contact and the school is concerned for the safety of the pupil the police will be contacted to carry out a welfare check.
We strongly encourage parents to inform the school office of any absences as soon as possible.
- If your child is absent please ring 01366 728280 and leave a message or speak to the office directly
- If you are coming to school anyway with another child, you can always speak to the office in person
- If we have not received a reply from you by 9.15am your child will be marked as absent unauthorised on our register
- In this case, we will make a telephone call (on your registered mobile number) from the school to enquire about the absence. We will then ring every contact on the pupil record.
- Where no response is received the unauthorised absence mark will remain on the register and we may conduct a home visit. This will be carried out by the headteacher or a safeguarding lead, accompanied by a second member of staff.
- We would far rather you ring/email us before we have to call
- Each day the Headteacher is given a list of children who are absent to support monitoring and working with parents to improve attendance.
Appointments
As our attendance policy explains, we encourage all appointments to be made outside of school hours. If this is not possible, the child should be absent for the minimum time possible.
- It is vital that the school is informed of appointments before they take place. This should be at least the previous day, except in exceptional circumstances. If the school has reason to suspect the authenticity of the appointment and no evidence can be provided to confirm the appointment, then the absence will be marked as unauthorised.
School Attendance Leaflet
List of services
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Attendance figures explainedList Item 1
Attendance is based on a child being at school in time for the morning register as well as the afternoon register so being marked present for 2 sessions a day.
Both these sessions count towards their overall attendance figure which is simply a percentage of how many sessions your child has been present throughout the current academic year.
The only reasons a child will be marked as present when they are not in school are if they are being educated at a different location, or at a school event such as residential or sporting.
There are a variety of different reasons that a child may be absent from school and the school will assign an appropriate code on the register to make staff aware of the reason.
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Authorised AbsenceList Item 2
Absence from school can be authorised for the following reasons:
Medical appointments
Illness where the school has been notified by phone or in writing
Religious observance
NOTE: An authorised absence is still recorded as the child not being in school and will have a negative effect on their attendance figure.
Absence from school will be unauthorised in all other circumstances unless deemed to be ‘exceptional’ by the Headteacher. This does not apply to term-time holidays, which will always be unauthorised.
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UNAUTHORISED TERM TIME LEAVE (includes Holiday):List Item 3
Any parent who takes a child out of school for term time leave of more than 9 consecutive sessions over a 10 week period, not authorised by the school (under exceptional circumstances rule), may receive a Penalty Notice.
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Why we feel a child’s attendance is so importantList Item 4
Children’s learning in school is based on a build up of skills and knowledge.
This build up is continually planned by teachers on a day to day basis. Children that miss one session could miss out on a potentially important session and although every effort is made to catch children up when they return, this is usually not as effective and takes time away from the rest of the class.
If children miss out on a number of sessions this can significantly affect their overall progress.
Children that are away from school on a regular basis can miss out on opportunities to build strong friendships and can sometimes find it harder to build strong friendships within school