Absence

Excellent attendance and punctuality is crucial to success. We encourage every child to aim for 100% attendance, maximising their learning opportunities, and helping them to achieve their full potential.

Evidence shows that pupils who maintain excellent attendance achieve more, and make better progress – both academically and socially. We work closely with parents to support them in helping their child to understand the importance of good attendance – laying the foundations for future success at secondary school and beyond to the work place.

Pupil attendance is closely monitored, and unexplained absence will be followed up. This includes where pupils fall below our minimum attendance expectation rate of 96%. Parents are asked to follow the procedure below in case of unavoidable absence, including for medical reasons. We also ask parents to contact us if there are any issues that may impact on their child’s ability to attend, so that we can provide help and support with this, including making adjustments so that pupils are able to attend.

Reporting Absence

• If your child is going to be absent, please call us on 01422 831971 and select option 1.

This should be done on the 1st day of absence and all subsequent days of absence.

Please leave a message if your call is not answered and this will be picked up by our Attendance Team.

Holidays In Term Time (HITT)

Please note that holidays during term-time will not be authorised, and will be recorded as unauthorised absence unless it meets the criteria for exceptional circumstances. We ask that parents check our term dates carefully before booking any holidays.

A penalty notice can be applied if there are 5 or more days of either consecutive or non-consecutive absence due to term time leave (holidays/events/etc). N.B. 1 day equals 2 sessions.

An unauthorised absence may be notified to the Local Authority, and a Penalty Notice may be issued. For more information on ‘penalty notices’ please follow the link here.

If you would like to read more about our approach to attendance, please see our Attendance Policy.

Medical Appointments

Whilst we appreciate this may be difficult, please try and book medical appointments out of school hours.

Medical evidence should be provided for all appointments. This can be emailed through to the ‘contactus@stpeters.trinitymat.org’ or shown to staff at the main office.

Children should attend school before and after the medical appointment where possible.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a life skill. Good school attendance includes being there on time. The habit of good punctuality at school will help your child throughout their education and into adult life and the work place. Every minute of every day counts!

How does lateness impact my child?

• 5 minutes late each day = 3 days lost over a year
• 10 minutes late each day = 6.5 days lost over a year
• 15 minutes late each day = 10 days lost over a year
• 20 minutes late each day = 13 days lost over a year
• 30 minutes late each day = 19 days lost over a year

Why is punctuality such a good thing?

Being on time for school:

• Helps your child make and keep friends
• Helps get your child’s day off to a good start and puts your child in a positive frame of mind
• Sets your child up for the future – whether it’s college, university or work. They could lose their place or lose their job if they think it is ok to be late.
• Helps your child understand that school is important and education is valuable
• Helps your child develop a sense of responsibility for him/herself and towards others
• Is linked to good attendance – good attendees have more opportunities and therefore achieve more.
• Leads to success and self confidence

Top Tips for Improving Punctuality

• Make sure your child has a good bedtime routine so they get plenty of rest and don’t struggle out of bed in the morning.
• Get to know your child’s timetable – plan together to make sure they have everything ready the night before; eg uniform, PE/swimming kit.
• Get your child into the habit of doing their homework in the evening – not the morning it’s due in.
• Invest in a good, reliable alarm clock – make setting it part of your child’s bedtime routine.
• Ensure your child has a good breakfast to set them up for the day.
• Have a back-up plan for getting your child to school in case something unforeseen happens – friends and family or perhaps neighbours who are taking their children to school anyway.
• Allow lots of time for your journey to school.

Support – If you are having problems getting your child to school on time:

• Talk to your child
• Contact school to help with any difficulties your child may be experiencing.