Good attendance and support from families means our pupils achieve well, enjoy their friendships, become the best version of themselves and can go out and make a difference to God’s world.
Good attendance matters because it helps pupils to:
We know that absence from school affects pupils’ outcomes, mental health and social development. Our school target for attendance is 97% – at this level, pupils will maximise their potential.
As you can see, the more time children have off school, the more they miss and the harder it is to catch up. We work hard to catch them up as best we can, but it is much better for them to be in school, learning and being with their friends.
If your child is feeling poorly but well enough to come to school, please send them in. We will look after them and if we think they are too unwell to be here, we will contact you to come and pick them up. The NHS has provided guidance on this here:
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/
If a child is absent from school, we do expect them to catch up on missed work. The expectations for most pupils catching up on missed work when they are absent are:
The teacher will
What this might look like
The pupil will
The full policy can be found here: https://www.stpatricksrchigh.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/attendance-and-punctuality-policy-with-penalty-notices.pdf
St Patrick’s is committed to a positive policy of encouraging pupils to attend school regularly. The school will work in partnership with parents/carers, the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer and other relevant services to secure this aim.
Every child has a right to access the education to which he/she is entitled. Parents\carers and school staff share the responsibility for ensuring that educational opportunities are maximised by encouraging good attendance and punctuality to enable pupils to reach their full potential.
The school will encourage and value high attendance and punctuality rates. The school will recognise the external factors which influence pupil attendance and punctuality and will work in partnership with parents/carers, the Education Welfare Officer and other relevant services to deal with any issues. The school will take a proactive approach to the promotion of good attendance and punctuality by defining expectations with students and their parents and will provide an effective and efficient system for monitoring attendance and punctuality in accordance with legal requirements.
Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence may seriously affect their learning. The Department for Education (DfE) defines a pupil as a ‘persistent absentee’ when they miss 10% or more schooling across the school year, for whatever reason. Furthermore the DfE defines a pupil as a ‘severe absentee’ when they miss 50% or more schooling across the school year, for whatever reason. The table below show how just a few days of absence can result in a child missing a significant number of lessons.
Pupils
Every child of compulsory school age is entitled to receive full-time education that is suitable to their individual age, ability and aptitude and any special educational needs they may have.
Pupils should:
Parents/Carers
Parents/carers are responsible in law for ensuring the regular and punctual attendance of their children. Parents should familiarise themselves with this attendance policy and should work closely with school staff to overcome any problems which may affect a child’s attendance.
Parents should:
School (this is an abbreviated list of the roles and responsibilities of various staff in school)
The Lead Governor responsible for monitoring school attendance is the Chair of Governors.
The Headteacher is responsible for monitoring school-level absence data and reporting it to governors
The school attendance manager monitors attendance data across the school and at an individual pupil level and reports concerns about attendance to the Headteacher/Deputy Headteacher
Heads of Year monitor year attendance on a daily basis and liaise with parents about causes for concern.
The Form Tutors are responsible for the accurate recording of attendance on a daily basis, talking to their Form pupils about their attendance and liaising with parents about absences.
Classroom Teachers record the attendance and punctuality of pupils to lessons and ensure pupils are caught up with work that they miss.
Form Tutors undertake morning registration at 8.30am and by Class Teachers at 1.00pm each day.
The Attendance Manager will make first day of Absence telephone calls to the parents/carers of all pupils who are absent.
All absences will be monitored. The Attendance Officer will send an advisory letter and make a telephone call to parents/carers of any pupil whose absences become a cause for concern, and liaise with Heads of Year, Senior Leaders and the Education Welfare Officer about any actions that need to be taken.
When a pupil arrives late to school, they miss important events like assembly, PSHE sessions, reading intervention, teacher instructions and pastoral support; this can seriously disadvantage pupils. Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning being lost.
