Attendance

Regular attendance is an obvious factor in your child succeeding at school. We promote good attendance through class and individual awards. Parents are regularly informed about their child's attendance percentage. 

Parents and guardians are legally required to ensure their children are in school every day. Our attendance target for all children is to be in school for 96% of the school year. As a school, we aim to be fair and consistent in our attendance policy. We will keep parents informed if their child’s level of attendance falls and will write to you if your child’s attendance percentage drops to a level that causes concern.

Schools are required to monitor attendance and to inform parents when their child’s attendance drops below certain ‘triggers’, even when there are genuine reasons for absence. We understand that unforeseen circumstances may arise, and there might be genuine reasons for absences including illness. However, it is essential to emphasise the importance of consistent attendance and maintain a line of communication between the school and the parents to address any concerns or issues proactively.

Children who attend frequently are also more likely to build strong, positive friendships. Please see the ‘Just One Norfolk’ website for more useful information about this and advice about professionals you can speak to if you have concerns.Just One Norfolk- School Attendance

 

Punctuality

The school gates open at 8.45am. Children can be brought onto the school site from this time.

Registers are taken promptly at 8.55am. We expect all children to be in the classroom by this time and ready to start their day. 

Classroom doors close at 9.00am. Any children arriving after this time must be brought to the main school office to be signed in and marked as late.  

Late marks are monitored by our office team and are passed onto our Pastoral Support team if your child reaches an unacceptable level of late arrivals in school.

Absence due to illness

Our expectation of you as parents is that you keep us informed of your child’s whereabouts at all times if they are not in school. This means a phone call each day before 9.05am to inform us of any illness. If they are ill for more than two days,  we would expect a visit to the GP. Please keep your appointment card to show the school as evidence of illness if it is required.

Sometimes, it can be tricky to decide whether or not to keep your child off school, when they're unwell. The Government produce guidelines for schools to say when children should be kept off school and when they shouldn’t. A copy of this guidance can be seen by following this link: Managing-specific-infectious-diseases-a-to-z

If your child is well enough to go to school, but has a condition which could be passed on, such as cold sores or head lice, please let your child’s class teacher and the school office know.

Medicines in School

If your child is prescribed medicine from your GP or you request pain relief to be given in school for example, we are more than happy to accommodate this.

Please come to the school office to complete a medication form, informing staff of the timing and dosage and leave this and the medicine with the school office.

Please do not put medication in your child’s school bag.  

School absence for other reasons

If your child is absent from school and we do not hear from you with a valid reason regarding your child's absence, the session will be marked as unauthorised. Birthdays, shopping for uniform, having no one to bring them to school are not valid reasons. Unauthorised absences can be counted towards Fixed Penalty Notices issued by Norfolk County Council (please see more information below).

We expect that routine medical appointments such as dentists, opticians, doctors etc are made outside of school hours where possible. If you have an unavoidable appointment in school time we will authorise one session of absence for that appointment (one registration session, either am or pm).

Holidays during term time cannot be authorised apart from very exceptional circumstances. Funerals are authorised for close family members, as are music/dance exams or similar. If your child requires time off during term time, we would expect notice of these events for the school diary through completion of an Absence Request Form.

Fixed Penalty Notices

Penalty Notice Fines for School Attendance are changing!

With the introduction of the new National Framework for Penalty Notices, the following changes will come into force for Penalty Notice Fines issued after 19th August 2024.

A New National Threshold:

There will be a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The 10-school week period can span different terms or school years.

Per Parent, Per Child:

Penalty Notice Fines are issued to each parent, for each child that was absent. For example: 3 siblings absent for term time leave, would result in each parent receiving 3 separate fines.

For more information about school attendance, please visit the Norfolk County Council website and see out attendance policy.

Norfolk County Council - School AttendanceAttendance Policy 2024-25

Attendance Procedures Appendix A

Whole School Attendance Letter September 2024