Attendance
Attendance Procedures
This guide outlines the school’s policy to school attendance and explains when absences will and won’t be authorised.
Parents do have a legal duty to ensure children attend school every day wherever possible and that they are on time and remain in school for the full day to access their education. School has a statutory responsibility to uphold this expectation and to have systems in place to monitor the attendance of all pupils.
Our ambition is to achieve 100% attendance with a minimum aim for all children to have at least 95% attendance and achieve an attendance award at the end of the year. Parents and carers should be aware that the attendance percentage is not the only indicator of concerning attendance. Frequent lateness and patterns such as regular Friday absence may also highlight a problem.
School is following the Rotherham Local Authority attendance procedures which can be viewed on the school website in the attendance section. School work closely with the LA Early Help services and are able to make referrals for support where attendance is concerning. School will talk to you if they feel that an Early Help referral would be useful. Information regarding Early Help and attendance can be found on the RMBC webiste.
Every school day matters as the below illustrates:
- 98% attendance = 4 school days missed
- 95% attendance = 10 school days missed (2 weeks)
- 90% attendance = 20 school days missed (4 weeks)
- 85% attendance = 30 school days missed (6 weeks)
- 80% attendance = 38 school days missed (8 weeks)
- Five minutes late each day = 3 days missed each year
Parents and carers will find useful information regarding when children should not attend school at https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/ and school will use this as a guide for determining whether absence is authorised or not.
Parents and carers are able to keep up to date with their child’s attendance through the Arbor app. Please speak to office staff if you are not yet using this facility.
If you have any questions about the school’s policy on attendance then please get in touch.