Attendance

We have the highest expectations of all our children and young people and we know that the more they attend school, the better life chances they will have.

We have a target of 95% attendance for all children and young people at the start of the school year.

 This target means that a child should be in school for 180 days out of 190 and have no more than 10 days off for medical / illness reasons in a school year.

 Every single day missed removes 0.5% from their yearly school attendance percentage.

 Once a child has missed more than 20 days, they become classed as a Persistent Absentee and can never achieve an attendance percentage over 90%. We know that attendance below 90% prevents high achievement in examinations and leads to employment issues later in life. Once a child has missed 40 school days, they can never achieve more than 80% attendance over the school year. 80% attendance means that a child is missing on average 1 day per week or 20% of their education. Over 5 years, this is one whole school year lost. The impact on examination results and on life chances is huge with job prospects damaged significantly.

 We will not authorise any term-time holidays unless there is an exceptional circumstance – this is backed up in law.

 Acceptable reasons for absence are:

• - Showing symptoms of covid-19
• - Awaiting the result of a covid-19 test
• - Time off for hospital consultant appointments for a chronic condition
• - Clearly so ill that they cannot comfortably attend school and function in a learning environment
• - Absence authorised by CAHMS

Unacceptable reasons for absence are:

• - Birthday celebrations
• - Standard GP and dentist appointments which can be booked outside of school hours
• - To go to the hairdressers
• - To go shopping
• - To work
• - To go on holiday
• - Family events (unless an exceptional circumstance and authorised in writing by the Headteacher)

We will work closely with families who have concerns about school attendance to find solutions to any problems. Children are safer in school – there is always a solution that we can find.