Attendance
At Gorsewood Primary School, we are committed to ensuring all children have good attendance and are punctual so they can reach their potential and benefit from all of the wonderful opportunities and experiences school offers.
We are committed toworking with parents to ensure good attendance and punctuality for all children.
Working together to improve attendance
Expect
Aspire to high standards of attendance from all pupils and parent/carers and build a culture where all can, and want to, be in school and ready to learn by prioritising attendance improvement across the school.
Monitor
Rigorously use attendance data to identify patterns of poor attendance (at individual and cohort level) as soon as possible so all parties can work together to resolve them before they become entrenched.
Listen and understand
When a pattern is spotted, discuss with pupils and parent/carers to listen to and understand barriers to attendance and agree how all partners can work together to resolve them.
Facilitate support
Remove barriers in school and help pupils and parent/carers to access the support they need to overcome the barriers outside of school. This might include an early help or whole family plan where absence is a symptom of wider issues.
Formalise support
Where absence persists and voluntary support is not working or not being engaged with, partners should work together to explain the consequences clearly and ensure support is also in place to enable families to respond. Depending on the circumstances this may include formalising support through an attendance contract or education supervision order.
Enforce
Where all other avenues have been exhausted and support is not working or not being engaged with, enforce attendance through statutory intervention: a penalty notice in line with the National Framework or prosecution to protect the pupil’s right to an education.
Celebrating good attendance!
At Gorsewood, we celebrate good attendance so all classes with over 95% attendance each week receive a piece of their jigsaw and when the jigsaw is completed the class receive a reward. We have lots of initiatives throughout the year to encourage and celebrate good attendance.
Absence
Time off school can impact the amount of progress your child makes. Parents/carers can access attendance data on their ARBOR app.
We aim for all children to be in the GREEN or GOLD band (above 95%).
We support parents to improve attendance which falls in the red or orange band (below 95%).
We ask parents to inform school as soon as possible if their child is going to be absent from school. We have an answerphone system so voice messages can be left or alternatively you can email or text school. Please only keep your child at home if they are too ill to be able to attend school and please inform school of the reason for the absence.
Use the following information to help you make a judegment on whether or not your child should attend school.
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We always carry out first day calling to determine why a child is absent from school if we haven't been notified. Sometimes we will carry out a home visit.
We will authorise medical appointments, but ask parents to make them in either the holidays or after school whenever possible. If your child does have a medical appointment, please bring them to school before and after their appointment.
Holidays during term time will not be authorised.
Where we have concerns about your child’s attendance (usually below 95%) or you have requested support, we will invite you in for meetings, set monitoring periods and set attendance targets (usually over 6 weeks). We will also work with children in school to identify barriers to attendance and work to reduce these. If there is no improvement, we will then work with other agencies including the Local Authority Education Welfare Team to further support you and your child.
Persistent absence is where a pupil misses 10% or more of school, and severe absence is where a pupil misses 50% or more of school. Reducing persistent and severe absence is central to the school’s strategy for improving attendance.