School attendance is vital to the attainment, wellbeing, socialisation and wider life chances of children. The greatest benefits come from children attending school regularly and we are committed to working supportively with parents to achieve this.

What does excellent attendance look like?
Our aim is for overall attendance to be 97% or higher. The following chart shows the number of days or weeks of lost learning for a whole academic year when attendance is less than 97%.

Our attendance policy can be downloaded from our policies page here.

What you must do:

• Telephone or email the school before 9.30am on the first day of your child’s absence.
• Tell us in advance of any medical appointments and bring in appointment cards/letters.
• If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, send them in anyway as they often perk up on arrival.
• Have a backup plan for if your child misses transport, call on a family member, neighbour or friend.
  If you and your child are experiencing difficulties with school attendance then talk to us as a first step so we can help.

What we will do:

• Check your child’s attendance every day.
• Phone home to discuss your child’s attendance with you.
• Invite you into school for attendance meetings if we are concerned.
• If we cannot establish a reason for absence, then we may make a welfare home visit.

Is my child too ill for school?
It can be tricky deciding whether to keep your child off school when they're unwell. NHS advice for different illnesses is here:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

If you decide to keep your child off school, you must call or email the school office before 9.30am on the day of the first
absence, provide details of the illness and, if possible, give an expected day of return.