Attendance

Good attendance is vital to making good progress. All Saints expects every child to attend school everyday. We give special recognition to our highest attenders through termly Top Percenters Days for children with over 98% attendance over that term and the weekly award of our attendance mascot in celebration assembly. We also recognise sustained improvement in attendance through letters thanking families for their efforts.

As a school, we will work with families at every stage to support and encourage good attendance. Our Family First Advisor, Mrs Poxon, is always available to speak to and will we always try to support families in any way that we can. There are various ways that we can support families to help improve attendance and we want to work with families to help to remove any barriers that they face.

Just a few days off means that children missing out on vital learning that can be difficult to recover. The chart below gives an indication of how much learning could be missed across the school year: 

How parents can support regular school attendance:

• Make sure that your child leaves for school with plenty of time to arrive on time.
• Support and encourage your child by attending parents evening and other events.
• Contact school to discuss any concerns regarding your child’s attendance.
• Work with the school to resolve any issues that may be causing or having an impact on your child’s attendance.
• Attempt to make medical appointments outside of school hours whenever possible.
• Not take your child out of school for holidays in term time or for other unnecessary absences.

Illness

We understand that children are ill and ask that parents contact the school office on the first day of absence via ParentMail or telephone to notify us of any absences. The NHS have developed some useful guidance on which illnesses would prevent a children from attending school which can be found here: Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Leave of Absences

Because of the impact that lost learning has, we strongly discourage holidays and other leave of absences within term time. We will only grant permission for this under exceptional circumstances and taking unauthorised leave may lead to a referral for a fixed penalty notice. There is updated national guidance on this below. A leave of absence form must be completed and returned to the school office at least 14 days before dates requested.

Punctuality

The start of the school day is 8.45am and learning begins as soon as children enter school during this registration time. Children arriving after 9am will be recorded as late and those arriving after 9.15am will be recorded with a U code which is counted as an absence. We regularly monitor punctuality as missing a just few minutes of learning can add up to a large loss in learning time. Please speak to us if you are struggling to get to school on time so that we can support you with this.

Fixed Penalty Notices

National guidance for schools has been updated from August 2024. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) may be issued for irregular, unauthorised attendance or leaves of absence taken in term time which have not been authorised by the school. The graphic below sets out the guidance for parents: