Attendance and Absence
Attendance
We expect all children on roll to attend every day, when the school is in session, as long as they are fit and healthy enough to do so. We do all we can to encourage the children to attend, and to put in place appropriate procedures. We believe that the most important factor in promoting good attendance is the development of positive attitudes towards school. To this end we strive to make our school a happy and rewarding experience for all children. We will also make the best provision we can for those children who, for whatever reason, are prevented from coming to school.
The school keeps accurate attendance and absence records which are regularly reported to the Governing Body.
Each week, we celebrate the class who has had the highest attendance for the previous week by awarding them with our Attendance Bear. Please see below the current Attendance Bear winner.
Absence
Government legislation requires parents to ensure that their children attend school regularly and punctually and has laid down guidance on authorised and unauthorised absences. Authorised absence includes illness, medical and dental appointments and religious observances.
Lateness
School starts promptly at 8.45 a.m. If a child arrives at school after this time, he/she should go to the school office to sign in. This will then be coded in the register as “L” to indicate that the child was late. If a child arrives at school more than 15 minutes after the start of the school day, this will be considered an unauthorised absence.
Illness/Medicines
If your child is absent from school, or unavoidably late, please telephone the school office by 8:20 am, giving the reason. If the child is absent for more than 1 day, please telephone each day unless you have previously confirmed the length of absence.
Please do not send your child to school if s/he is unwell; we have very limited facilities for looking after sick children. Children who have suffered sickness or diarrhoea should not return to school for at least 48 hours after the sickness or diarrhoea has stopped.
It is essential that we have an up-to-date day time telephone number where we can contact parents should children become ill or have an accident.
We do not encourage medicines to be brought to school, but if it is necessary then the prescribed medicine should be clearly labelled with the name of the child. It should be brought to the school office where you will be required to complete a consent form detailing the dosage and times when the medicine should be administered.
Parents of children requiring regular or long-term medical treatment are welcome to discuss this with a member of the Leadership Team.
Collecting before 3:15pm
If it is necessary for your child to leave school before the end of the day, please send a note to the class teacher stating the time at which the child will be collected. No child will be allowed to leave the site unless collected by his or her parents or another adult who is known by the school to have permission from the parent to collect their child. All children must be signed out at the School Office.
Leave of Absence
We believe that children need to be in school for all sessions, so that they can make the most progress possible. However, we do understand that there are times where a parent may request leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. The Governing Body has drawn up a schedule of possible requests for leave of absence and the maximum number of days which may be granted as authorised absence. Holiday requests will not be authorised. Prior to any leave of absence, a request should be made by completing a ‘Leave of Absence’ form. These forms are available below or from the school office. Parent/Carers will be informed, in writing, as to whether the request meets the criteria for an authorised absence.
Unauthorised Absence
Unauthorised absence or truancy is defined as any unaccounted for absence from school or a child arriving 15 minutes after the register has been taken without a suitable explanation. The truancy figures for each school are collated during the summer term and any unauthorised absence will be recorded on your child’s school report.
Monitoring
Mrs Chapman continues to regularly monitor attendance in conjunction with the Educational Welfare Officer (EWO). Our current attendance figure excluding Reception is 95.9% at Queen Emma. With Reception included, Queen Emma’s is 95.5%. The attendance has continued to improve and Queen Emma is consistently meeting our target attendance figure of 95%+. We receive requests from parents for holidays during term time which we are continuing to mark as unauthorised; this is in line with guidance at a local and national level.
Click here for our Attendance Policy on our Policies page.
Should you have any queries about the policy please speak to a member of the Leadership Team.