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 'Attendance Matters at Meadows' leaflet is an excellent source of information for parents and carers.

Attendance Matters at Meadows

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.

Please do not report your child's absence via ClassDojo.

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 may 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 may 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 Inclusion Manager and Educational Welfare Officer 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 a referral may be made to the Attendance Support Team in the Telford and Wrekin Local Authority.

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.

Is my child too ill to be in school?

If you are unsure if your child should be in school, you are always welcome to call our office team for support or advice.

Our school follows guidance given by the Public Health Agency on infection control and appreciates the support of parents and carers with this.

Click here to read advice on whether your child should be in school.

Leave of Absence:

Where possible parents are encouraged to take leaves of absence 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.

From August 19^th 2024 the Government have introduced a new ‘national framework for Penalty Notices’. (in Telford & Wrekin the changes apply from 1^st September 2024). There are significant changes that parents need to be aware of:

If your child has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10 school week rolling period, you may be issued with a Penalty Notice. These 10 sessions may include any unauthorised absence, including leave in term time and do not have to be consecutive.
Penalty Notices are increasing to £160 from September 2024. This can be reduced to £80 but only for the first Penalty Notice issued, if paid within 21 days – this reduction does not apply to any subsequent Penalty Notice.
Any 2^nd Penalty Notice, to the same parent for the same child, issued within three years of the date of the first Penalty Notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160
A third Penalty Notice will not be issued within a three year rolling period, to the same parent for the unauthorised absence of the same child, - alternative action or legal measures will be utilised for subsequent offences.
In some circumstances a ‘Notice to Improve’ may be issued – However, a Notice to Improve will only be used in cases where support is appropriate. They will not be issued in cases of unauthorised leave in term time for holidays, where information for parents is included on schools website or a simple warning by the school that a Penalty Notice could be issued if unauthorised leave in term time is taken will suffice.

"Parents should always apply to the Headteacher for any request for leave in term time by completing a request form available from school. (DfE guidance states schools should not authorise leave retrospectively so any leave in term time taken without a request being submitted will be unauthorised absence)’. In developing and publishing the new national framework, the Government has renewed appeals to parents not to take their children out of school during term time. The Governors and Headteacher of this school support this and students will only be given permission to take leave in term time if there are exceptional circumstances. The DfE Guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance (Feb 2024) states that: Generally, the DfE does not consider the need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. (Paragraph 38.) Each application for leave in term time will be considered and if it is agreed and authorised the Headteacher will determine the duration of any leave. However, if the application is not agreed and the absence occurs the dates will be unauthorised. Parents will be notified of any decision in writing. This notification may be hand delivered directly to the parent or posted to the parents’ home address. As a school we are asked to inform you that in line with Telford and Wrekin Council Policy, if your child is absent for 10 school sessions within a 10 week rolling period and that absence is unauthorised, you may be subject to a Penalty Notice fine, criteria is as detailed above.

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 a Leave of Absence Request in School Time.

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 - a member of our office team will call to acknowledge the lates and offer support. This will be recorded in our safeguarding records.
4 lates - a letter will be sent informing you of your child's lates and requesting an improvement in punctuality. The letter will acknowledge the phone call made previously.
5 lates - 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. Non-attendance will result in a meeting with the child on their own.
6 lates - 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. Non-attendance will result in a meeting with the child on their own.
7 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.
8 lates or more - a referral will be made to the Educational Welfare Officer.

At each stage, an improvement window of 5 days will be set. Where improvements are not seen, the following stage as detailed above will commence.

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. If the winning class achieves an attendance of 97% or above, they get to spin the wheel and receive an extra special prize.
Motivating Prizes - each term, a prize is awarded if a whole school attendance or above, from the start of the school year, is achieved.