Wolverton Primary School

Attendance

The school aims to work together with parents to ensure that it meets all legal requirements regarding attendance and that all children registered at the school attend both regularly and punctually. Parents have a legal duty to ensure that children of compulsory school age attend on a regular and full-time basis.

If your child is unwell or absent you must contact the school on each day of absence. If you do not contact the school office and the school cannot make contact with the contact details provided and we are uncertain about your child's whereabouts, we have a legal duty to ensure the safety of the child, which may result in us ringing the police. 

To report your child's absent please contact the school office:

Attendance Policy

Leave Of Absence

The Government issued new regulations in September 2013 regarding Leave of Absence; The Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended by Education (Pupil Regulations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013.

  • Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. If the leave is granted, headteachers are able to determine the number of school days a child can be absent for.
  • The Government has not defined ‘exceptional circumstances’ as referred to in the 2013 regulations. It is for the Headteacher to decide what he/she views as ‘exceptional’ and it is at their discretion if the circumstances warrant the leave to be granted.
  • The school can only consider Leave of Absence requests which are made by the ‘resident’ parent.
  • Each application for a leave of absence will be considered on a case by case basis and on its own merits.
  • Where applications for leave of absence are made in advance and refused, the child will be required to be in school on the dates set out in the application. If the child is absent during that period, it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

We greatly appreciate parental support to reduce the total amount of days lost due to holidays. We are committed to working in partnership with you to enable your child to reach their academic targets and to support their social development. For this to happen we need to keep individual attendance as high as possible – we all need to play our part.

Please click here to download our leave of absence request form. 

Your child’s progress academically as well as socially is our shared priority. Please see below how a few days missed, can add up:

ATTENDANCE DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR

EQUALS THIS NUMBER OF DAYS ABSENT

WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY THESE MANY WEEKS

WHICH MEANS THIS NUMBER OF LESSONS MISSED

90%

19

4

100

80%

38

8

200

70%

57

11.5

290

Punctuality

Arriving at school on time helps every child start the day calmly and ready to learn. When children are late, they can miss important instructions, learning time, and find it harder to settle into their routine.

We kindly ask families to ensure children arrive by 8.50am each morning. If your child arrives after this time, they will be marked as late, please sign your child in at the school office. 

If your child is late 5 times in the space of 2 weeks or there is an obvious pattern, the school will make contact to understand if there is any necessary support needed and the reasoning behind the lateness. 

MINUTES LATE

DAYS OF LEARNING LOST (TOTALLED OVER THE YEAR)

5

3

10

6

15

9

20

12

Monitoring Attendance

As a school we strive for 100% attendance for every child, however we also understand that this is not always possible and therefore aim for a a target of at least 95%. 

We regularly monitor attendance through our internal systems, identifying patterns and children who are at risk of missing too much education, which can be detrimental to their development. It is a child's right to have access to an education and we have a duty of care to ensure that this is happening. 

Our trigger points are:

  • Children who have are at 96% and are on the decline, teachers will raise this to parents
  • Children who are late 5 times over the course of two weeks or there is an obvious pattern, teachers will raise this to parents
  • Children who are at risk of becoming persistently absent 90-95% will have a letter issued to parents by the headteacher raising concerns and the impact this will have on their child’s education. A meeting will be offered with the Attendance Champion and class teacher if the parents would like/need support.
  • Children who are persistently absent 90% and below will be invited in for a meeting with the headteacher and class teacher.
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