Attendance

The Importance of Good Attendance

Regular attendance at school is important. Failing to attend school regularly can have a major impact on children’s education, their future and their life chances. Regular attendance means attending school every day and arriving at school on time.

From the first day of term to the last, the small moments in a school day make a real difference to your child. #AttendanceCounts

Attendance Policy
Attendance Policy Summary
2024 NEW Guidance around Attendance

Superstar Attendance!

Our current whole school attendance currently stands at 96.1%

Below is the attendance for each class

David Attenborough – 98.1%

Aretha Franklin– 96.1%

Mae Jemison – 87.1%

Marcus Rashford – 93.6%

Andy Warhol – 94.6%

Ada Lovelace – 97.5%

Charles Dickens – 95.8%

Attendance

Attendance and Punctuality

Within the St. Paul’s community, we all want our children to succeed. Children only get one chance at school and this chance is affected by not attending school every day and on time. When children do not attend or are late, they often struggle to keep up with school work and miss out on the social side of school life. Poor punctuality and attendance can often affect their ability to make and keep friendships, which is such a vital part of growing up. Lateness not only affects the child, but other members of the class, as the teacher often has to stop the lesson and go over key learning points.  Each week, the class with the highest attendance get a reward towards an end of term party and at the end of the year 12 of our 100% attendees get certificates and awards too. Last year, 12 children received an Amazon voucher for having 100% attendance at the end of the school year.

Our expectations for a ‘SMART’ start:

Doors open at 8.40am and children can come straight into class and begin their learning tasks. At 8.45am the bell rings and doors close at 8.50am. At this stage, you need to bring your child to the school office and sign them in.  If your child is poorly and unable to attend school, please inform us by ringing school by 9am at the latest.  Please rest assured that if you send your child to school and they become poorly, we will always ring you and let you know.  It is vital we have the correct contact numbers, so please update details whenever necessary.

National Attendance:
Primary national pupil attendance is around 93%. In order to achieve national level of attendance, a child need to be in school at least 177 out of 190 days.

Understanding types of absence
Every ½ day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical appointments and emergencies.

An absence is classified as Unauthorised, if the reason was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as what is acceptable and what is not.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

A birthday
A shopping trip
Day trips
Holidays

Lea Vaughan

Headteacher

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