Attendance

We want our children at St Columba’s to enjoy coming to school.

Research proves that there is a high correlation between school attendance and academic performance and success.

Absence from school is often the greatest single cause of poor performance and achievement.

Ensuring children attend school is crucial for the welfare of children and safeguarding their wellbeing.

Good attendance means- being at school at least 98% of the time or 186-190 days.

Why is it so important to attend every day?

• Each day’s learning builds upon those of the previous day and lessons are sequenced as a learning journey.
• Reading the material and completing work independently does not compensate for the direct interaction with the teacher – this only happens when a child is in school.
• Classes use discussions, demonstrations, experiments and participation as part of the daily learning activities, and these cannot be made up by those who are absent

  How close is your child to 100%? 

  

Are there other benefits to my child? 

• Pupils with good attendance records generally achieve higher grades and enjoy school more.
• Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life.
• Regular school attendance patterns encourage the development of other responsible patterns of behaviour, useful life skills and resilience.

 What parents can do to help?

• Parents must model the value of education, including the high importance of attendance.
• You can support your child by creating good routines at home. For example, making sure your children gets 10-12 hours of sleep a night (NHS recommended) means that they will be ready to wake up for school and it supports vital brain development.
• Make sure your child eats breakfast as this helps them to stay alert at school. We do have a breakfast club if you would prefer your child to have breakfast in school.
• Make sure that your child goes to school regularly and arrives on time. This will help establish a good habit, which they will continue through life.
• If your child starts missing school, work with the school to put things right. Make sure your child understands that you do not approve of him/her missing school.
• If your child is ill or must miss school for some other reason, contact school immediately. If you ask for home-learning, make sure your child completes it.
• Do not expect school to approve of shopping trips, birthday treats etc. during school hours. Arrange family holidays so that your child will not miss any learning.
• Help your child to develop good night time routines by checking their homework, reading, getting their school bag ready for the next day, reducing screen time before going to bed and going to bed at a reasonable time.
• Arrange medical and dental appointments outside of school hours where possible. 

How do we promote and ensure good attendance?

• We ensure St Columba’s is a warm, welcoming and nurturing environment.
• We ensure that pupils are safe and feel safe at all times at St Columba’s.
• We ensure the curriculum is accessible, interesting and appropriate for all pupils’ needs.
• We help children to feel valued and like they belong to St Columba’s – encouraging events that create a sense of community and belonging.
• In an age-appropriate way, and in the context of managing their well-being, we encourage in pupils a sense of their own responsibility for being school ready and attending every day they can. Through assemblies and the curriculum, we equip children with the life skills needed to take responsibility for good school attendance and punctuality appropriate to the child’s age and development.
• We provide lots of fun activities, enrichment, opportunities that children want to come to school to do.
• We provide a sympathetic and supportive response to any pupils’ or parental concerns/difficulties.
• We raise awareness of parents, carers and pupils of the importance of uninterrupted attendance and punctuality at every stage of a child’s education.
• We promote good attendance in a child friendly manner to encourage responsibility.
• We ensure that parents understand the responsibility placed on them for making sure their child attends regularly and punctually.
• We report to parents/carers annually on their child’s attendance with the annual school report.
• We contact parents/carers should their child’s attendance fall below the school’s target for attendance.
• We provide support and, if necessary, challenge where attendance issues are identified.
• We have procedures for monitoring and responding to pupil attendance and punctuality.
• We work in partnership with pupils, parents, staff and Children’s Services so that all pupils realise their potential, unhindered by unnecessary absence.
• We establish a pattern of monitoring attendance and ensure consistency in recognising achievement and dealing with difficulties.
• We recognise and utilise the key role of all staff, not just the learning mentor and class teacher, in promoting good attendance. 

 We maintain and promote good attendance and punctuality through:

• Using clear procedures for identifying, reporting, and reviewing cases of poor attendance and persistent lateness.
• Supporting pupils who have been experiencing any difficulties at home or at school which are preventing good attendance.
• Developing and implementing procedure to follow up non-attendance at school.
• Using a range of ever-changing attendance promotions/positive reinforcement and rewards – we join with cluster wide campaigns, school council are consulted regarding what attendance awards should be given, individual children and families who are supportively challenges received individualised feedback.  These rewards and high-profile events are discussed regularly with school council and staff and are subject to change according to need/ideas. 
• On to one support of children as needed – attention and focus from the inclusion team.

School has a statutory duty to keep your child safe which includes knowing where they are if they are not in school. We appreciate that children are sometimes genuinely ill. If your child is going to be absent due to illness, please inform the office by 9am on every day of absence. If you do not contact the office, school will ring you followed by every contact number we hold for your child until we speak to somebody. If your child is absent and we are unable to contact anybody, we will visit the family home in order to ensure that your child/ children are safe and well. If we are still unable to contact a named contact, then we may call 101 in order to seek the police’s assistance in locating the family.

Rewards for Good Attendance and Punctuality

At St Columba’s, we recognise the importance of good attendance and punctuality and as a result we reward the children in a variety of ways, including:

• Weekly wristbands and rewards for the classes/ individuals with the best attendance
• Half termly certificates, badges and rewards for the classes/ individuals with the best attendance
• End of year certificates, badges and rewards for the classes/ individuals with the best attendance
• Attendance Monopoly - the top 3 classes with the highest attendance participate weekly by rolling the dice to win a prize.
• Half termly attendance rewards for all children with over 95% attendance, such as magic shows, discos, captivating creatures and many more exciting things! 

St Columba’s Attendance Procedures

Pupils whose attendance is less than 90% are referred to as ‘Persistent Absentees’ by the DFE and will be considered for referral to the Local Authority Attendance Team. The school attendance team with then begin a programme of monitoring and support.

• Step 1 – Parents/guardian of identified Persistent Absentees will be contacted by school staff and offered support to ensure that their child attends school each day.
• Step 2 – Should absence continue despite support being offered, parent/guardian of identified Persistent Absentee will be sent a ‘monitoring’ letter and any further absences will be monitored for a period of two weeks.
• Step 3 – Should any further absences occur within the two week monitoring period, the parent/guardian will be invited to attend a meeting with the Family Support Worker and a member of the Senior Leadership Team to discuss the absences and agree an action plan to improve attendance. The action plan will then be reviewed in 6 weeks.
• Step 4 – A letter summarizing the discussion and a copy of the action plan is posted to the parent/guardian.
• Step 5 – After 6 weeks, the attendance printout is reviewed by the school attendance team.

Punctuality – arriving at school on time

Lateness not only affects your child’s education, but it does not allow the social time to settle with their friends, they may feel upset or embarrassed, and it disrupts the rest of the class.

School starts at 8:45am. Being frequently late for school adds up to lost learning.

You will receive a letter, a home visit and be invited to a support meeting if we are concerned about the number of lates your child has.

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club at St Columba’s is offered to all pupils from Reception through to Year 6 (subject to availability). Breakfast Club opens at 8:00am and provides your child with a healthy breakfast and the opportunity to develop their social skills. You may find that regular attendance at Breakfast Club may help improve your child’s punctuality.

Holidays during term time

From 1^st September 2013, the law has been changed (The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006) which removes the statutory threshold of the discretionary 10 school days of absence for the purpose of a family holiday or extended leave except for exceptional circumstances.

NO FAMILY HOLIDAYS OR EXTENDED LEAVE WILL BE GRANTED for any child from this date.

If a request is made, a meeting must first be held with the Headteacher to discuss the request. Families must note that if they decide to take unauthorized leave e.g. go on extended leave in term time, then the school will actively pursue the issuance of a fixed penalty notice.

Under the national rules set by the government, all schools are required to consider a fine when a child has missed 10 or more sessions (5 days) for unauthorised reasons.

From August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country will be £80 if paid within 21 days, or £160 if paid within 28 days. In the case of repeated fines, if a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.

Fines per parent, per child will be capped to two fines within any three-year period. Once this limit has been reached, other action like a prosecution will be considered.

If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500.

Remember…Good attendance is important because pupils:

• get on better with learning and other children;
• cope better with school routines, work and friendships;
• find learning easier because they do not miss out;
• are more successful moving between primary school, secondary school, higher education and employment or training