Attendance
At Meadows Primary School and Nursery, we truly believe that every school day counts towards your child's future. Days off school add up to lost opportunity for aspiration, growth and flourishment.
Our attendance target for children is an ambitious 98% or above! Our attendance to date is 96%.
We appreciate it when families use the 175 non-school days a year for time together, family visits, holidays, days out and routine appointments where possible.
Good attendance is important because:
- Statistics show a direct link between educational achievement and absence levels. Higher absence can lead to lower achievement.
- Regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically.
- Regular attenders find school routines, school work and friendships easier to maintain.
- Regular attenders find learning more satisfying.
- Regular attenders find transition points easier to manage.
Our 'Valuing Excellent Attendance' leaflet is an excellent source of information for parents - the leaflet is a summary of our attendance policy.
Reporting Absence:
If your child is absent from school it is very important that you let us know the reason for absence as soon as possible. We encourage parents to inform us of their child's absence as soon as possible, on the first day of absence, by telephoning the school - 01952 386230 - and selecting option 2 and leaving a message on our absence answerphone. You are invited to leave your child's name, class and reason for absence. If the absence persists for more than one day, we ask that you contact us daily to keep us updated.
If no message is received by closure of registration a member of our office staff will telephone to understand why the child has not arrived at school. Regular and punctual attendance is an important part of a child’s educational development and our high attendance figures are a result of strong parental support and rigorous procedures to ensure its monitoring.
Please see below detail on the actions we follow for attendance falling below 96% after the first half of Autumn Term each year:
- Attendance below 96% - a letter will be sent to you informing you of your child's current level of attendance. This is an initial acknowledgement that the attendance falls below our school target.
- Attendance remains below 96% - A second letter will be sent informing you that the attendance rate is not improving.
- Attendance still remains below 96% (but more than 93%) - After a further four weeks, if the attendance still remains below 96% a meeting with our Deputy Headteacher or Headteacher will take place. The reason for continued absence will be discussed in addition to actions being agreed to support better attendance in the future.
- Attendance goes below 93% - Following continued intervention and support over a term, a referral will be made to the Educational Welfare Officer.
Exceptional Appointments:
Whilst we discourage appointments during the school day, if your child does have an unavoidable appointment during the school day, a member of the school office team should be informed by an e-mail or phone call in advance of the absence. Your child will need to be collected from and returned to the school entrance, where you will be asked to sign your child out. This is necessary to ensure the safety of your child at all times.
If your child returns to school before completing a course of prescribed medication this can be handed in to the school office for administering. Our Office Team will discuss the purpose of the medicine, and refer where required, to guidance given by the Public Health Agency.
Holidays:
Where possible parents are encouraged to take family holidays during the scheduled school holiday periods in order to cause the least amount of disruption to their child’s education and attendance.
- 10 days absence would mean 95% attendance - half an afternoon off a week!
- 19 days absence would mean 90% attendance - half a day a week!
- 29 days absence would mean 85% attendance. - three quarters of a day off a week!
- 38 days absence would mean 80% attendance - one day off a week!
- 47 days absence would mean 75% attendance - a quarter of the school year missed!
However, we do understand that there are exceptional circumstances when this may not be possible and in such circumstances we ask that a Request for Holiday in School Time form be filled out and submitted to the school office well in advance. Our Headteacher, Mr Piatczanyn, will then consider the request. You will receive his decision in writing.
There is no formal definition offered for exceptional circumstances, at present, by the Department for Education (DfE). From discussion with the DfE and professional associations, however, it is suggested that exceptional leave would be:
- Rare
- Significant
- Unavoidable
- Short
Click here to download our Attendance Policy
Lates:
As we similarly encourage excellent attendance, so too do we consider punctuality as significant to your child's learning, in addition to developing a necessary life skill.
- 5 minutes of lateness every day = 3 days of school lost a year.
- 10 minutes of lateness every day = 6.5 days of school lost a year.
- 15 minutes of lateness every day = 10 days of school lost a year.
- 20 minutes of lateness every day = 13 days of school lost a year.
- 30 minutes of lateness every day = 19 days of school lost a year.
Classroom doors close at 8.50am. From this point, you are asked to bring your child or children to the school office to register them as in school.
Please see below detail on the actions we follow for lateness. These are progressive and will be reviewed on a weekly basis.
- 3 lates in a half term - a letter will be sent informing you of your child's lates and requesting an improvement in punctuality.
- 4 lates in a half term - a meeting with our Inclusion Manager will be requested. Reasons for lateness will be discussed, in addition to actions to support punctuality in the future agreed.
- 5 lates in a half term - a meeting with the Phase Leader will be requested. Reasons for lateness will be discussed, in light of reasons detailed previously, in addition to new/additional actions to support punctuality in the future agreed.
- 6 lates in a half term - a meeting with the Deputy Headteacher will be requested. Reasons for lateness will be discussed, in light of reasons detailed previously, in addition to new/additional actions to support punctuality in the future agreed.
Celebrating Attendance
It is important to acknowledge and celebrate excellent attendance. We celebrate attendance in the following ways:
- Best Attendance Trophy – in our weekly Celebration assembly, we congratulate the classes who have had the highest weekly attendance. Their class name is called out and their trophy attendance awarded. The winning class each week enjoy a bonus playtime on Friday afternoon.
- Motivating Prizes - each term, a prize is awarded if a whole school attendance or above, from the start of the school year, is achieved.