Attendance & Punctuality

We encourage all children to have excellent attendance at Redbridge Primary School

Regular school attendance brings enormous benefits to individual pupils, their families, schools and the community as a whole. Without regular attendance, levels of attainment suffer and opportunities are missed to obtain maximum benefit from education.

Persistent absence and lateness will affect a child’s achievement and progress in school.  Comprehensive research shows that there is a direct link between a child’s level of school attendance and their level of school attainment.

As a parent it is your legal responsibility to ensure your child receives a suitable full time education and your child attends school each day and is on time.

It is important to set the expectation of good attendance right from the beginning of school so children grow up with ‘good habits’.

If your child is absent from school you must inform the school, by telephone, e-mail or by letter, giving a reason for the absence.  Absences once reported are either authorised or unauthorised by the school. 

As part of the schools Safeguarding duty, the school office will call to check the whereabouts of your child if we have not been notified of their absence.

Authorised absences would include time off for religious observance, medical appointments and genuine illness.  Please note that the school has the right to ask for proof of medical appointments and confirmation from a medical professional if a child’s level of absence is above that expected for a usually healthy child.

Unauthorised absences would include time off for birthday treats, family days out, holidays etc.

If you need to make a medical or dentist appointment:

Medical appointments, should where possible, be made outside school hours.  When this is unavoidable, your child should be in school for the remainder of the school day, whether before or/and after the appointment.  Supporting evidence of the appointment should be given to the school office.

Holidays & Leave of Absence

There is no legal entitlement to holidays or leave of absence during term time.

A leave of absence can now only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.  Holidays are not deemed to be exceptional circumstances and therefore will not be authorised.  If you wish to take your child out of school for any purpose a Leave of Absence form should be submitted, stating the dates and reason for absence.  This is available to collect from the school office.  Any requests must be made in advance of the absence.

Lateness

Having good attendance also means being on time and not being late to school.  Children who arrive late can feel embarrassed, left out and miss out on important introductions to lessons.  Punctuality is an essential life skill that needs to be taught from the very beginning.  Gates open at 8.20am which gives you 10 minutes to arrive and make your way around to the classrooms.  Gates are locked and registers are taken promptly at 8:30am.  If your child arrives after 8:30am they will need to come into school via reception.  An adult is required to sign them in and to give a reason as to why the child is late.

What happens if we are worried about your child’s school attendance?

Good attendance is 95% or more, if attendance is below 90% the child is classified as ‘persistently absent’ from school and this will have a negative impact on the child's learning.

If we have concerns about your child’s attendance, we will contact you so that we can offer support and work together to make sure your child’s attendance is good.  We have a designated Education Welfare Officer (EWO) who will also work with families if there is an on going concern about school attendance.

What you can do to help your child?

• Make sure your child comes to school regularly and punctually.
• Please support Redbridge Primary in our efforts to encourage punctuality, good attendance and behaviour.
• Take an interest in your child’s school work
• If your child if off school, it is very important you phone or email on the morning of each day of absence to tell us why.  Staff will be concerned if they do not hear from you.  
• If your child starts missing school, work with the school without delay to put things right. Communication is very important

Please see Redbridge Primary School Attendance Policy for full details.