Attendance
Our aim is to bring the best out of every pupil that attends The Norman
The Importance Of Attendance
Children who attend school have the best possible platform from which to build a successful future. We want all children who attend our school to have as many options available to them when they finish school here and beyond, and therefore we want children to be attending everyday.
When children are regularly late, this impact on the start of the day. They will miss lessons, miss social interactions and the routines of the morning when everyone is putting their things away and getting ready for the day ahead. Children who are regularly not attending school will regularly miss important lessons, socialising with their friends and find it harder to build confidence in school due to the lessons and social time they have missed.
We know that sometimes there are inportant appointments and naturally, children do become ill. We understand that this situations occur. We ask that you consider three questions:
- Can the appointment be moved outside of school time?
- Am I keeping them home in case they might become ill? In this case, we will always monitor and contact you if your child is unwell.
- Would I take a day off work for the same sickness?
At The Norman, we wish to support you and your child with their attendance in school. There are many things that we can try and implement to do this. If you have any concerns or struggles with your child's attendance, please do contact us and we will start the conversation that will help you to find a successful path forward.
It is a parent / carers responsibility to inform the school if their child is unable to attend statutory schooling.
If contact from home is not received to notify of absence, school will endeavour to make first day contact with families to secure information on the absence and code registers accordingly.
School will contact parents via telephone in the first instance and by messaging service where pupils have been marked absent and no message has been received.
- If your child is absent please ring 01366 728241 and leave a message or speak to the office directly
- If you are coming to school with another child or sibling, you can always speak to the office in person to notify them of an absence.
- If we have not received communication of absence by 9.15am your child's absence will be marked as 'unauthorised' from school on our register.
- In this case, you will receive a telephone call (on your registered home and / or mobile number) from school to enquire about the absence.
- Where no response is received the unauthorised absence mark will remain on the register and we may conduct a home visit in line with our safeguarding policy. This will be carried out by the headteacher or a safeguarding lead, accompanied by a second member of staff.
- Each day the Headteacher is given a list of children who are absent to support monitoring and working with parents to improve attendance.
List of services
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Attendance figures explainedList Item 1
Attendance is based on a child being at school in time for the morning register as well as the afternoon register so being marked present for 2 sessions a day.
Both these sessions count towards their overall attendance figure which is simply a percentage of how many sessions your child has been present throughout the current academic year.
The only reasons a child will be marked as present when they are not in school are if they are being educated at a different location, or at a school event such as residential or sporting.
There are a variety of different reasons that a child may be absent from school and the school will assign an appropriate code on the register to make staff aware of the reason.
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Authorised AbsenceList Item 2
Absence from school can be authorised for the following reasons:
Medical appointments
Illness where the school has been notified by phone or in writing
Religious observance
NOTE: An authorised absence is still recorded as the child not being in school and will have a negative effect on their attendance figure.
Absence from school will be unauthorised in all other circumstances unless deemed to be ‘exceptional’ by the Headteacher. This does not apply to term-time holidays, which will always be unauthorised.
Please see the information below, from the Local Authority, regarding unauthorised term time leave.
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UNAUTHORISED TERM TIME LEAVE (includes Holiday):List Item 3
Any parent who takes a child out of school for term time leave of more than 6 consecutive sessions over a 4 week period, not authorised by the school (under exceptional circumstances rule), may receive a Penalty Notice. Such cases will have to be supported by evidence of previous unauthorised term time leave (more than 6 consecutive sessions over a 4 week period) taken in the last 3 years and evidence of parents being warned about a potential Penalty Notice.
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Why we feel a child’s attendance is so importantList Item 4
Children’s learning in school is based on a build up of skills and knowledge.
This build up is continually planned by teachers on a day to day basis. Children that miss one session could miss out on a potentially important session and although every effort is made to catch children up when they return, this is usually not as effective and takes time away from the rest of the class.
If children miss out on a number of sessions this can significantly affect their overall progress.
Children that are away from school on a regular basis can miss out on opportunities to build strong friendships and can sometimes find it harder to build strong friendships within school