Attendance & Absence
Regular attendance at school is essential to ensure uninterrupted progress and to enable children to raise their attainment. At St Barnabas CEVC Primary School the attendance pattern for all children is monitored regularly with the school seeking to work actively with parents to ensure a regular pattern is maintained.
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 to support this. We believe that the most important factor in promoting good attendance is development of positive attitudes towards school and learning.
Poor attendance can seriously affect each child’s:
• attainment in school
• relationships with other children and their ability to form lasting friendships
• confidence to attempt new work and work alongside others
Absence Procedure
We appreciate that there will be times when your child’s absence is unavoidable, such as if they are unwell or have an urgent medical appointment. If there is a valid reason, the absence will be authorised.
If your child is unable to attend school you must:
Contact the school office on 01380 813436 before 9am on the first day of absence.
Inform us of any prolonged absence, providing copies of medical evidence.
Advise us in advance of any absence that you know will occur in the near future, for example, unavoidable medical appointments. Please provide copies of appointment letters.
We ask that our parents endeavour to make any medical appointments outside of school hours.
We will:
Call you, if we haven't heard from you, on the first day of absence.
Invite you to school to discuss the situation if the absence persists.
Provide support via our pastoral team or an educational welfare officer to families who have difficulty maintaining good levels of attendance.
Ensure that you have an accurate record of your child's attendance on all progress reports.
If there is not a valid reason for your child’s absence this will be recorded as unauthorised.
Illness
Your child can attend school with minor ailments such as toothache, headache, stomach ache, cold and sore throats. Over the counter medicines can be given before school.
The school will contact you if your child becomes too ill to remain in school. If your child has diarrhoea or vomiting, they should not return to school until 48 hours after the last episode or symptom.
If you are unsure how long your child should be absent with an illness speak to a member of school staff or your doctor.
Is my child too ill for school?
Holidays & Planned Absences
School holiday dates are published well in advance and we encourage parents to check the term dates when booking holidays to ensure that these fall outside of term time. Holidays taken in term time can not be authorised.
If parents feel that there are exceptional circumstances to taking their child out of school during term time, an application in writing, must be made to the Head Teacher in advance. The Head Teacher will decide on an individual basis whether or not to authorise the absence.