Attendance and Punctuality (including medicine in school)
Our Attendance Strategy:
Above is our attendance strategy that encapsulates everything we are currently doing to improve attendance within our school.
Key Parental Information:
Our attendance strategy helps us to work towards our attendance vision which is shown below. Also included are some key information and handy top tips for parents and carers.
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Our Attendance Policy:
Our Attendance and Punctuality Policy is updated annually to include DfE guidance which schools must follow. This includes guidance on applying for holidays (leave of absence) which we always advise parents are very rarely authorised. If you do intend to remove your child for a period of time, you must fill in a leave of absence form, available at the school office. There is a PDF version on this page. This is to ensure the safeguarding of our children, so that we know when to expect them back in school.
OUR ATTENDANCE POLICY CAN BE TRANSLATED INTO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES USING GOOGLE TRANSLATE WHEREIN DOCUMENTS CAN BE UPLOADED:
https://translate.google.co.uk/?sl=auto&tl=en&op=translate
School Responsibility:
Within the above policy, school has the following roles to support attendance.
- Inform parents/carers of their responsibilities for maintaining regular attendance for their child.
- Inform parents/carers every half term of their child’s attendance using the traffic light system.
- 97-100% - Good - Outstanding - GREEN LIGHT
- 94-96.9% - Satisfactory - AMBER LIGHT
- 93.9% and below - Unsatisfactory - RED LIGHT
- We aim to support any family in difficulties or crisis.
- Refer families requiring support to the Attendance Team or the Education Welfare Officer as necessary.
- We will actively seek Court Prosecution when needed, but we do this as a very last resort.
- We value and reward good attendance; weekly, half termly, termly and annually through certificates, praise in assembly, rewards and a class attendance trophy.
We will request an explanation from parents/carers if your child is reguarly late for school. Parents/carers will be invited into school to discuss this concern with a memebr of our attendance team (including our Senior Attendance Champion or Executive Headteacher) in the hope of resolving the problem.
To raise standards, please be aware, letters will be sent from the Pupil Attendance and Education Welfare Services if there are any concerns.
Research shows that the closer a school and family work together the more likely a child will succeed.
EXPECT
Aspire to high standards of attendance from all pupils and parents and build a culture where all can, and want to, be in school and ready to learn by prioritising attendance improvement across the school.
MONITOR
Rigorously use attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance (at individual and cohort level) as soon as possible so all parties can work together to resolve them before they become entrenched.
LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND
When a pattern is spotted, discuss with pupils and parents to listen to understand barriers to attendance and agree how all partners can work together to resolve them.
FACILITATE SUPPORT
Remove barriers in school and help pupils and parents to access the support they need to overcome the barriers outside of school. This might include an early help or whole family plan
where absence is a symptom of wider issues.
FORMALISE SUPPORT
Where absence persists and voluntary support is not working or not being engaged with, partners should work together to explain the consequences clearly and ensure support is also in place to enable families to respond. Depending on the circumstances this may include formalising support through a parenting contract or education supervision order.
Rewards and Incentives:
We are currently running a fantastic competition between classes; the best attending every week will win a virtual £5 for their piggy-bank. Spend it or save it for your class!
Each half-term, we also run a different incentive for the winning class. In Autumn 1, this is all about 'Awesome Autumn Attendance.'
Visit our weekly newsletter to see weekly attendance updates: https://www.parish.st-helens.sch.uk/page/newsletters/128081
Medicine in School:
If your child needs medicine, prescribed by a doctor, to be adminsitered in school, please complete a yellow 'medincine in school' form at the school office or complete the form attached and either hand in or email to us in advance.