To view our Attendance Policy please visit our policies page here.

 

Absence

If your child is going to be absent from school due to illness, it is important that you contact the school office on the first day of absence before 9.00am so we can accurately complete our registers. If your child has vomited or had diarrhoea they may return to school no less than 48 hours from the last symptom, which is the guidance given to all schools by the Health Protection Agency. You can leave a message on the school absence line 01293 526737 option 1. Please leave the child's name, class and details of illness.  If no word is received from the parent or carer, the school will try to make contact. The school follows up all absences where no reasons are given. If the reasons for these absences remain unspecified, they will be marked as unauthorised.  

Lateness

It is very important that children arrive on time and are present in their classroom by 8:50am ready to start their learning. Children who arrive after 8.55am need to enter the school building via the school office, where they will need to be signed in. If your child is brought to school by an adult, the adult must sign them in on Inventry upon arrival. 

Medical Appointments

We ask that you try to arrange these to take place outside of school hours; however we are aware that this is not always possible. Therefore we ask that you inform the school office of these appointments, and the time at which your child shall be absent. If your child will be absent for a whole morning or afternoon, a ‘Request for Withdrawal from Learning’ form must be completed.

Withdrawal from Learning

If you wish your child to be absent from school for any other circumstances not listed above i.e. Religious Observance etc. you are required to complete an ‘Absence Request Form’. Holidays during term-time cannot be authorised and Fixed Penalty Notices may be issued. Blank Absence Request Forms can be requested from the school office or downloaded below. 

Northgate Primary School:-

• wants to provide an outstanding education to all its pupils
• wants to maintain a whole school attendance rate of 97% or above.

This infographic illustrates the impact of absence on attendance.

Government Expectations

Schools and Local Authorities to:

• promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence;
• ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled; and,
• act early to address patterns of absence.
• Parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age, who are registered at school, attend regularly.
• All pupils to be punctual to their lessons.
• To enable children to achieve all they are capable of, it is essential that they attend regularly and punctually. 

All schools are expected to achieve an overall rate of 95% attendance. It is the responsibility of all school staff to be welcoming to children and their parents, creating an atmosphere where they both feel able to raise concerns and share any information that could affect the children’s attendance. Due regard will be given to the fact that a register is a legal document and, taking this into account, registers will be marked regularly and conscientiously at the beginning of both the morning and afternoon sessions. The times after which a child is marked late or absent are given in the individual school prospectuses. The Local Authority recommends that, unless there is prior agreement or good reason, should a pupil arrive more than half an hour late after the registration closes, this should be an unauthorised absence (U). It is important that all children arrive at school punctually. If a child is late, s/he should report to the school office to be marked in and ensure that in case of emergency the school has an accurate head count. It is most important that parents / carers discuss any problem with either the class teacher or the Headteacher so that appropriate help can be offered. Equally, if a child needs to leave school for a medical appointment during school hours s/he must be signed out, and in again on return, at the office. Parents / carers are asked to make every possible effort to make appointments out of school hours.

It is the parents’ / carers’ legal responsibility to ensure their child’s good school attendance and punctuality. If attendance or punctuality is persistently unsatisfactory, initially the school will liaise with the parent verbally and/or by letter. If the situation does not improve, i.e. the child’s unauthorised absences build up to 10 days, the school will consider a referral to Pupil Entitlement: Investigation (PEI) of West Sussex County Council (WSCC). Should a child’s attendance and/or punctuality still not improve, PEI will consider whether legal action should be instigated against the parent / carer under the Education Act 1996. Alternatively, PEI may seek an Education Supervision Order in the family proceedings court.