Regular school attendance 

Good attendance helps your child to build firm and positive friendships with other children and good relationships with their teachers.  Regular attendance at school helps them to learn and make good progress, as their learning journey is continuous and follows a logical sequence.  Good attendance from Nursery upwards builds good habits that will pay dividends as they move through our school and onto middle school, high school and beyond. 

If your child is absent, you must contact the school office on the day. You can do this by phoning 01527 62263 or emailing: [email protected]

The school will record any absences.  The Local Authority will receive this information for each child. The Department of Education also receives weekly attendance data for the school.

Unauthorised absences

We now adopt penalty notices for unauthorised absences in line with updated UK guidance. This is part of our ongoing commitment to promoting good attendance and ensuring all children have the best chance to succeed. Please read our Attendance Policy in the Policies section of our website.  As always, please do speak to the school office who can arrange an appointment with Mrs Martin to discuss further. 

Holidays during term time 

 Leave of absence requests during term time will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Approval is very unlikely where a pupil’s   attendance is below expected levels.

Good attendance:

• For consideration, good attendance means: 96% or higher attendance and the requested absence will not cause the pupil to become a persistent absentee (19 or more days absent in a year).
• Consideration of Previous Attendance

We will also consider:

•  Attendance in the previous academic year
• Patterns of absence, such as regular term-time holidays or frequent days missed
• Requests are more likely to be considered if attendance is strong and consistent, and less likely if there is a history of poor attendance.

Why regular attendance matters:

• Regular attendance ensures:
• Continuity of learning
•  Academic progress and wellbeing
•  Development of good routines and habits for future education and employment
• Parents are expected to:
• Ensure children attend school every day unless genuinely too unwell for school.
•  Arrange medical, dental, and other appointments outside school hours wherever possible

Decision process:

•  Leave of absence during term time is exceptional
• Poor or borderline attendance makes approval unlikely
•  Submitting a request does not guarantee approval

How to prevent your child from missing school

Missing too many days of school also causes difficulties with forming strong friendships with their classmates because they are missing out on experiences they could share and enjoy together with their friends. 

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

• making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality
• taking an interest in their education – ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities
• discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher  know about anything serious
• not letting them take time off school for minor ailments – particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work

To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:

• after school hours
• at weekends
• during school holidays
• St. George’s will not authorise your child going on holiday during term time

Is my child too ill for school?

Please see the below link for the latest NHS guidance regarding your child being too ill for school. 

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school

Support with school attendance

Problems with regular attendance at school can be caused by many things e.g. medical conditions, bullying, care arrangements for other children/family members, domestic abuse, financial hardship. We love and care deeply for all our children and their families.  As a result we hope everyone in our St. George’s family knows that they can talk openly and honestly about any problems or worries they may have and can trust us to do whatever we can to help them. As a staff team we are dedicated and committed to giving the right support at the right time, so that all our children can thrive and flourish.  It takes courage to ask for extra support or help, and we are always ready to listen and will go the extra mile to provide the best help available as quickly as possible.

Where we have ongoing concerns, or parents or carers do not work with us in order to improve their child(ren)’s attendance, we will follow the schools escalated approach to improving attendance (see the flow chart below).  The schools escalated approach is child-centred and prioritises support and developing strong working relationships with families. 

What happens if my child has days off school?

The flow chart below is a summary of our approaches for rewarding good attendance and punctuality and what happens when we start to become concerned about a pupil’s attendance.

Further details and information about our strategy for improving attendance and punctuality can be found in our Attendance Policy below.