Attendance and Absence
School Procedures for Recording and Monitoring Attendance
Recording Attendance
The class teacher will take a register recording who is present and absent from school at 9.00am.
Absences will be recorded onto the attendance section of SIMS and all the present pupils marked present. The offered reasons for any absences will be assessed and the appropriate code entered into the system.
If a child is absent, the parent should:
- Contact the school on the first day of absence, by telephone; AND
- Provide a written letter detailing the reason for absence on the first day back after absence
A reason for a period of absence is always required. The school will contact parents who have not offered a reason and after a three week process will mark the absence as unauthorised if no reason is provided.
Sometimes a child may be reluctant to attend school. Where this is the case, we believe that effective home/school communication contributes to a solution. This will help us to identify the root cause of the reluctance to attend and plan the way forward together.
Authorised Absences
From time to time children need to be absent from school for other reasons such as medical appointments. Such absences usually only take up part of a day.
School should be informed of such absences in writing in advance, with accompanying documents and children should be brought in to school for morning registration and back to school straight after the appointment.
Every effort, however, should be made to arrange medical appointments outside school hours. Every single day a child is absent from school equates to a day of lost learning.
Examples of authorised absences are:
- Illness
- Religious observance by the religious body to which the child’s family belongs
- Absences allowed by the school. These would usually include:
- Medical appointments
- Exclusions
- Family occasions, e.g. close family wedding, bereavement etc.
- Extreme family emergencies, e.g. house fires, burglaries etc.
- Representing the school, county or country at an approved event
- Taking music, dance or drama examinations
Unauthorised Absences
Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which no “leave” has been given.
Examples of unauthorised absences are:
- Parents/carers keeping children off school unnecessarily
- Unexplained absences i.e. the absence has never been properly explained to school
- Shopping, looking after other children or birthdays
- Day trips or holidays in term time
- Truancy
Forge Integrated Primary School discourages holidays during term time due to the impact they have on pupils’ learning. Family holidays taken during term time will be categorised as an unauthorised absence.
School Procedures for Recording and Monitoring Punctuality
Punctuality to school is crucial. If your child misses the start of the day they can miss work and the time with their class teacher getting vital information and news for the day. Late arriving pupils also disrupt lessons. This can be embarrassing for the child and can encourage absence.
It is paramount therefore that all pupils arrive at school on time. The school day starts at 9.00am and we expect all children to be in class at this time.
Children will be supervised in the playground from 8.45am and ready to come into school at 9.00am, when the bell rings. By this time the children should have said their goodbyes and be lined up with their class in the correct place. This creates a positive start to the school day and allows learning to commence promptly.
