Attendance
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Did you know…?
90% attendance means: - on average, half a day's schooling is missed every week. - 4 whole weeks of schooling is missed over a year! This will have a negative impact on not only your child's attainment but also their ability to make friendships and feel part of the class. How many employers would allow us to have a day off each week? Habits of poor attendance and lateness in school are often repeated in working life. We want our children to learn early on the importance of punctuality and school attendance. Parental attitudes towards punctuality and attendance are bound to influence children's attitudes. At Longstone School good attendance is a priority and by improving attendance we will improve further the standards that our pupils achieve and give them better chances in later life. We can only achieve this with your help. Did you know that…? - Handwriting begins at 9 o’clock - Phonics and grammar begins at 9.10am If your child regularly arrives at 9.15am they will miss up to 1¼ of learning hours each week. This equates to 6¼ hours each month! This is the equivalent to more than 1 full day’s teaching. What can parents do to help? If you feel that your child is unhappy at school and that this is affecting their attendance, please contact us as quickly as possible so that we can work together to resolve any issues. - Ensure that your child arrives at school on time with the necessary equipment for the day. - If at all possible please keep medical and dental appointments outside of the school day. - Only allow days off for genuine illness - you know your child! - Do not take your child on holiday during term time. Holidays (leave of absence) during term time There are 190 school days in a year and therefore 175 days of holidays and weekends. Taking your child out of school for 2 weeks (10 school days) will reduce their attendance to 94% before any account is taken for illness. The law says that parents do not have the right to take their children out of school during term time and Longstone School does not authorise any holiday during school time except in exceptional circumstances. Holidays taken during term time will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and could result in parents being fined by the Local Authority. Medical/dental appointments - We realise that some appointments are unavoidable but please enquire whether appointments are available out of school hours. Absence Reporting - If your child is unwell and not able to attend school, please telephone to inform us by 9.10 am. Please do not send your child if he/she is unwell. |
Should you need to take your child out for school please complete a leave of absence form hand into the office. (See top of page for link to download this form)