Late/Absence Procedures
ATTENDANCE MATTERS
Help your child become involved by sending them to school every day.
Waltham CE Primary School and Rise promote the view that regular attendance is important to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for children. Children should be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Permitting absence from school without a good reason is an offence by the parent/carer.
Young people who regularly miss school without good reason are more likely to become isolated from their friends, to under achieve and/ or become involved in anti-social behaviour (Department for Education).
Together we are committed to:
- Excellent attendance of our pupils
- Excellent punctuality of pupils
- Raising levels of achievement
- Maximising opportunities for children in school
- Working in partnership with parents to maintain high expectations of attendance and timekeeping.
Punctuality
Being punctual for school enables children to feel prepared for learning at the start of the school day and is essential to ensure that children achieve their full educational potential. Children who are late for school will miss key information.
Our school gates open at 8:35am everyday and children go straight to their rooms to get ready for learning.
The gates are locked at 8:45, as this is when lessons begin, so it is really important you allow for good time to enable them to be ready.
Registration
It is Rise policy that registration should close 10 minutes after the start of a session.
The school doors open at 8.35 am to provide adequate time for children to be ready for the start of the school day at 8.45 am.
Registers close at 9.00 am. Children arriving after the register has been taken, but before 9.10 am will be registered as late.
Arrivals after 9.10 am are registered as unauthorised absence.
Children who arrive late due to an unavoidable medical or dental appointment will have their absence authorised, provided that they produce evidence to support this.
Absences
School needs to be informed about the reason for a child’s absence. Parents and carers should contact the school office by phone or in person on the first day a child is absent before 9.00 am.
Parents should continue to keep the school informed about an absence every other day. If a child has not been marked present in the register and school has not been notified about a child’s absence, the office will contact parents as soon as possible. If we are not able to contact parents or are concerned regarding attendance we will call outside agencies for support, for example the police could be asked to conduct a ‘safe and well’ check.
When your child returns to school, it is important that you provide a written explanation for their absences which is signed and dated by one parent/carer. The form below may assist you with this.
Parents/Carers do not authorise their child’s absence – only the school can do this on the basis of the explanation provided by the parents/carers. (Should parents/carers fail to provide a satisfactory reason for their child’s absence; the school will record such absence as unauthorised).
Authorised absence is defined as, when the school has given approval in advance for a pupil of compulsory school age to be away, or exceptionally where an explanation offered afterwards has been accepted as satisfactory justification for absence.
Unauthorised absence is defined as, when a pupil is away from school, or when a pupil is late after the register has closed for the session, without permission from an authorised person.
Persistent absence is defined as absence below 90%. Parents whose children are persistently absent risk prosecution if the absences are recorded as unauthorised. It is concerning to us if a child’s attendance is below 95%, the attendance lead in school will therefore monitor all attendance below 95%.
For full details, please refer to our school and Trust policy.