Attendance

Why is Regular Attendance so Important?

 St William’s Catholic 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 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.

St William’s Catholic Primary School monitors the attendance of every child in the school and in partnership with the Education Welfare Service, we will work and support those children and their families who are not attending school without sufficient reason. 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

At St William’s we put great emphasis on good attendance and punctuality. Our school target is for each child to attend school every day. Our school attendance target is 98%, and we hope to improve every year. Holiday requests during the school term will not be granted. We work closely with the Education Welfare Service to ensure attendance is good for all children. Children with 100% attendance are given certificates in our celebration assemblies each half term.  

We are always happy to support children and families with any issues relating to attendance and punctuality. Please let us know if your child is worried about anything in school and they don’t want to attend. We can help! Please contact us if you have any concerns regarding your child, likewise we will contact you if we have any concerns and offer support in any way we can.

What to do if.....

Your child is absent from school

You should contact the school office before 9.00am on the first day of absence giving a reason for this absence.

01274 545743

If we do not hear from you a member of the office staff will contact you. If your child is absent for a long period please keep us informed.

Timekeeping

The doors are open at 8.45am and close at 8.55am. We expect all children to be in the classroom at this time.

Children who are late after 8.55am should report to the office for a late mark. Lateness will be monitored and you may be contacted if lateness persists. The start of the school day is very important. If a child misses the introduction to the lesson they may not catch up with that lesson which will have an impact on learning.

Timekeeping is an important in the education of your child. If your child is persistently late then they are missing out on important learning opportunities at the start of the lesson. Can we also remind parents and carers that the doors are open from 8:45am. The school day finishes at 3:15pm

If you need to take your child out of School:

We understand there are times when you need to take your child out of school for hospital/medical appointments. However we encourage these to be arranged outside of school hours. The school office should be notified of the appointment and evidence must be provided for the absence to be authorised.

This may include...

• An appointment card
• Letters
• Medicine bottles/packets
• Prescriptions 

Please complete a leave of absence form for any other leave of absence. Please see our Leave of Absence Policy.

Lateness = Lost Learning 

Children are rewarded for 100% attendance - these can be trips to the cinema, disco event, magic show.

Families also have an opportunity to win shopping vouchers in our prize draws.

• attendance-policy download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineattendance-policy
• leave-of-absence download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineleave-of-absence