Attendance

Why is regular school attendance important?

Manor Primary School works closely with children and parents in connection with attendance so that each child can achieve their full potential. By law, all children of compulsory school age (five to sixteen) must receive a suitable full-time education.

Once your child is registered at school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly. If your child fails to do so, you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted. You also need to think about the negative impact upon the following:

• their learning
• their friendships
• their self-esteem and confidence.

Manor Primary monitors the attendance of every child in the school and works in partnership with our Schools Educational Welfare Officer, Graeme Halewood. Together they work and support those children and their families who are not attending school without sufficient reason.

It is very important that you contact school, on the first day of absence, to let us know that you child is ill. Our school number is 0151 677 3152 or use our text message service to contact us (see below).

90% attendance sounds good, but means that your child misses:

• one half day each week
• nearly four weeks every school year
• over one school year in a school career

Our school's target for this academic year is 95%

Timekeeping

Timekeeping is also important in the education of your child.  If your child is persistently late then they are missing out on important start of lesson.

School doors open at 8:45am and will close at 9:00am promptly.

If you arrive after this time, please report to the main school office where your child will be given a late mark.  Registration will close at 9:15am any child who arrives after this time will be marked as absent.

Timekeeping is also important in the education of your child. If your child is persistently late then they are missing out on important assemblies as well as the start of the lesson.

We work closely with our Educational Social Welfare Officer to monitor each child's punctuality, parents who persistently bring their children to school late may be issued penalty notices. 

 

Traffic Light Letters

These letters are issued each term and detail your child's current attendance.  Letters are colour coded to match our attendance traffic lights.

• Green Letter  -  95% attendance and above.  Best chances of success, FANTASTIC!

• Amber Letter -  90% to 94% attendance.  NEED FOR SOME IMPROVEMENT. Attendance monitored by                                       Headteacher weekly.

• Red Letter     -  89% and below.  Poor with serious concern.  DANGER ZONE PERSISTENT ABSENTEE. Panel                           meetings will be called to address issues and provide support to improve.

Support and Advice

If you require any support or advice with attendance and punctuality, please contact the main office to arrange an appointment to see myself, Mrs Lightwing.

We ask parents to telephone or text us to report a pupil absence as early as possible on the day of the pupils's absence providing a description of their illness.

Children may not take family holidays during term time.

Pupils's whose attendance is below target, parents will be asked in for a meeting to discuss ways in which to improve attendance.

Attendance Prize !

Pupil attendance is vital to a successful education in primary school as this is the foundation for lifelong learning.  Missing lessons makes it more difficult for your child to make good or better progress as they will have gaps in their learning.

In an attempt to motivate pupils to increase their attendance the PTA have decided to run an ATTENDANCE INCENTIVE giving all those pupils with an attendance of 98% and above the opportunity to be entered into a draw to reward their effort and determination at the end of the school year for a chance to

WIN A BICYCLE !

A termly traffic light board will be updated with the pupils’ who are in with a chance of entering to win the prize!  This will run from September 2014 until July 2015.

Bicycle drawn in March 2015!  Scooter up for grabs for Summer Term attendance prize draw.  All those with an attendance over 98% will be entered into the draw.

Fixed Penalties for

Absence and Lateness

Regular and punctual attendance of pupils at school is both a legal requirement and essential for pupils to maximise their potential.  Parents are responsible for ensuring that their child of compulsory school age receives efficient education that is suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and to any special educational needs the child may have at school or otherwise.

An offence occurs if a parent or carer fails to secure a child’s regular attendance at a school at which they are a registered pupil and when that absence is not authorised by the school and does not meet one of the statutory defences.  Penalty Notices are one of a number of legal sanctions available to deal with these offences.

Circumstances When Fixed Penalty Notices Will Be Issued:

Penalty Notices may be considered appropriate in the following circumstances:

• Attendance below 85% with at least 10 days lost due to unauthorised absence. These do not need to be consecutive.
• 5 days or more unauthorised absence due to holidays in term time.
• Pupils stopped on Police Truancy Sweeps in some circumstances, for example, if this is repeated.
• The presence of an excluded child in a public place at any time during school hours in that child’s first five days of a school exclusion without good reason.
• A pupil arrives late after the registers are closed (after 9:15 am) on 10 or more separate occasions.

To avoid this process, Mrs Lightwing will write to you informing you of your child's attendance and possibly schedule a meeting to discuss the matter in an attempt to resolve any issues.