Supporting Attendance and Punctuality at West Jesmond
We want to work with all of our families to ensure that every child has the very highest school attendance. School attendance is so important to your child’s academic achievement, wellbeing, and wider development. From the first day of term to the last, the small moments in a school day make a real difference to your child.
We want all young people at this school to be confident both academically and socially. This will ensure that they succeed in the next stage of their learning. Success at school allows young people to make more choices about their lives, have ambitions about the future, enjoy a wide range of experiences and make lifelong friends.
School isn’t always easy. Most young people have days when they don’t want to go. However, if they aren’t in school, they will feel behind in their learning when they return. That can have a big effect on their confidence. They also miss out on shared experiences with friends, which can make them feel left out. This can make school feel even harder and lead to more regular absence.
Most young people attend school at least 97% of the time, and this is what we aim for. Our Promoting Great Attendance Policy sets out the principles, procedures and practice we undertake to encourage attendance and to address absence.
Further guidance on attendance is available from the DFE document Working together to improve school attendance - GOV.UK
- We talk with our children about the importance of being in school everyday.
- We share and celebrate attendance in our newsletters and assemblies.
- Each class has the chance to win one of our attendance mascots, the Whale and the Penguin each week!
We expect parent/carers to:
- Encourage school attendance and the value of attending school regularly.
- Provide up to date contact numbers and changes of address.
- Provide details of at least two contacts for emergency use.
- Notify the school office when your child is unable to attend, with a reason, on the first day of the absence.
- Telephone the school after the first day of absence if the absence is continuing.
- Keep the school well informed, especially about circumstances that might mean your child is absent for several days.
- Provide medical evidence, if possible, indicating attendance at the dentist, doctor, or optician before the arranged appointment unless an emergency situation arises. This might include an appointment note or an NHS App message. Whenever possible all appointments should be made outside of school hours.
- Ensure that your child arrives at school on time each day.
- Let the school know if your child is going to be late, e.g., if a car breaks down, if an urgent appointment has been made.
- Book family holidays during school holiday time.
Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is a parent/carer’s legal responsibility (Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act) and permitting absence from school that is not authorised by the Head Teacher creates an offence in law.
If your child has repeated periods of illness, we may ask you to provide medical evidence for each future period of illness related absence. This evidence could be a doctor’s note, appointment card/letter or copy of a prescription. We may seek written permission from you to make our own enquiries.
We are here to support ALL families even those with medical conditions. We also work closely with medical staff and school health teams to help parents access the right support to help their child.
If your child must attend an appointment during school time, you must provide evidence of the appointment which indicates attendance at the dentist, doctor, or optician before the arranged appointment unless an emergency situation arises. This might include an appointment note or an NHS App message.
Please come to the school office a couple of days before the appointment with any evidence you may have from the doctor or hospital with the date/time of the appointment.
Term Time Absence
The school is not able to authorise any term time holidays.
Any request for leave of absence due to holidays in term time will not be authorised. The DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreational circumstance, and therefore there is no entitlement in law to time off in term time. Young people who are absent from school fall behind in their learning. They miss out on school events. Many find it difficult to catch up.Exceptional Leave
On a few occasions a parent may request an exceptional leave of absence for a child. There is a very short list of reasons where this might be granted. The time a child is out of school must be short and with a clear return date and the school will always consider the attendance of the child over the time leading to the request, including attendance in previous years.
Extended visits to family at home or abroad are never authorised.
Reluctant attenders/School refusal and Anxiety about School
If the reason for your child’s reluctance appears to be school based, such as difficulty with accessing the curriculum, anxiety, bullying or other issues, you should discuss this with us at the earliest opportunity and we will do everything possible to resolve it. There may be other root causes to your child’s anxiety about school and things that make the school environment difficult for them. We want to do all we can to work with you and your child to identify what these may be and what adaptations to school or the school day we can put in place to help your child. Every child is different and we want to work with you to ensure do all we can to make your child feel safe and happy in school. We have staff trained in Emotionally Based School Non Attendance and also we work with support teams in the Newcastle Local Authority. Please speak with Rachael Spanner, Wellbeing Lead or Gemma Jordan our SENCO.