Attendance
The Importance of Good Attendance and Punctuality
The importance of good attendance and punctuality cannot be overemphasised. Family life is very important, but education is vital to ensure children have the chance to achieve their potential in life, for their future. Children only get one education; every day missed by choice, is missed knowing there is a potential impact on their education and future.
Parents/carers should also ensure that their children arrive on time each day. Children arriving late to school can miss important instructions and they disrupt the work of the teacher and other pupils in the class. Children who are persistently late will be reported to Mrs Miller (Care, Guidance and Support Leader).
Celebrating Good Attendance
King Edward Primary School celebrates and rewards good attendance over 97%! For children who achieve 97% attendance, they will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher. This will start afresh every term. At the end of the year, there will be an even bigger prize draw for those who reach 97% across the whole school year. All children who reach these targets will also receive a certificate and Winnie award.
Sickness Absences
If your child is absent through illness or for any other reason, parents/carers will have to report the absence before 9.00am by leaving a message on the absence phone line (0191 814 1455). Any absences not accounted for in this way must be identified as an unauthorised absence on your child’s record.
If your child is absent due to sickness and diarrhoea, please keep them off school for 48 hours from the time of their last episode. This is to prevent the spread of illness among other children and is in line with NHS guidelines. If you are unsure if it is suitable for your child to be in school during or after an infectious illness (e.g. chicken pox, slapped cheek), please call the school office (0191 814 1455) who will be able to offer advice.
Absence Requests during the School Term
As a parent / carer, you can demonstrate your commitment to your child’s education by not allowing your child to miss school for anything other than an exceptional and unavoidable reason. Research suggests that children who are taken out of school may never catch up on the learning they have missed, which may ultimately affect exam and test results as well as pupil well being.
Parents are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure their child attends school regularly. There is no automatic right to take a child out of school during term time. Amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 make it clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The DfE have directed that no leave of absence for family holidays will be granted as they do not constitute exceptional circumstances. If you do chose to take your child out of school for a holiday it will be classed as an unauthorised absence. We request that you complete our absence request form so that we know where your child is if they are absent from school in line with our statutory duties.
We will always hope that parents/carers will be an open and honest role model to our children and report absences to us appropriately. However, if we believe a child has been on holiday or has been absent without due cause, then we will not authorise the absence. The duty and responsibility will then fall to parents/carers to provide medical or other evidence, to show that the child has not been away on holiday or has been genuinely unwell.
If your absence request is for a sporting event or religious observance, authorisation may be granted by the Headteacher on submission of the absence request form.
