Absence Procedures

The name and contact details of the school staff member pupils and parents should contact about attendance on a day-to-day basis is:

Name: Mrs Scanlon

Email: admin@noakbridge.essex.sch.uk

We monitor all absence, and the reasons that are given, thoroughly.

If a child is absent from school the parent must follow these procedures:

• Contact the school on the first day of absence before 9.20 am. The Studybugs app should be downloaded to report any absence, you may also phone the school and leave a message on the absence line or send an email to admin@noakbridge.essex.sch.uk

• Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9.20 am.

• Ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible and you provide any medical evidence, if requested, to support the absence.

If your child is absent we will:

• Telephone, email or text you on the first, and every subsequent day of absence, if we have not heard from you however it is your responsibility to contact us

• If we are unable to make contact with parents by telephone, we will telephone emergency contact numbers, send letters home and a home visit may be made in the interests of safeguarding

• A referral will be made to Local Authority if no contact has been made with parents by the 10th day of absence (or sooner if deemed appropriate), at which point your child will be considered to be “missing from education.”

If absence continues we will:

• Write to you if your child’s attendance is below 96%, or where punctuality is a concern

• Invite you into school to discuss the situation with our head teacher.

• Create a personalised action/support plan to address any barriers to attendance

• Offer signposting support to other agencies or services if appropriate

• Refer the matter to the Local Authority for relevant sanctions if attendance deteriorates following the above actions

Lateness

Poor punctuality is not acceptable and can contribute to further absence. Good time-keeping is a vital life skill which will help children as they progress through their school life and out into the wider world.

Pupils who arrive late disrupt lessons and, if a child misses the start of the day, they can feel unsettled and embarrassed, miss vital work and important messages from their class teacher.

The times of the start and close of the school day for all pupils at Noak Bridge Primary are:

Doors open: 8.40 am

End of the school day: 3.20 pm

How we manage lateness:

• The school day starts at 8.40am when children can begin to come into school

• Registers are taken at 8.50am and your child will receive a late mark ‘L’ if they are not in by that time

• Children arriving after 8.50am are required to come into school via the school office. If accompanied by a parent/carer they must sign them into our ‘Late Book’ and provide a reason for their lateness which is recorded

• At 9.20am the registers will be closed. In accordance with the Regulations, if your child arrives after that time, they will receive a mark that shows them to be on site - ‘U’, but this will not count as a present mark and it will mean they have an unauthorised absence

• The school may contact parents/carers regarding lateness

• From time to time a member of school staff will undertake a ‘Late Gate’ check, greeting late arrivals at the main entrance to the school

Unauthorised lateness could result in the school referring to the Local Authority for sanctions and/or legal proceedings. If your child has a persistent late record, you will be asked to meet with the head teacher, but you can approach us at any time if you are having difficulties getting your child to school on time. We expect parents and staff to encourage good punctuality by being good role models to our children and celebrate good class and individual punctuality.

Hours of learning lost due to absence from school

When we talk about attendance percentages it can be difficult to understand why there are concerns. A child with 89% attendance at the end of an academic year will have missed 21 days of school (over four school weeks of learning missed).

Whilst 89% is a positive achievement in an examination/test, 89% attendance would warrant a significant level of concern.

Where a child does not attend school, they miss out on significant hours of learning opportunities (broadly calculated as 5 hours for every two sessions missed) which are unlikely to be covered again. This places a child at significant risk of falling behind their peers