We encourage all children to have excellent attendance at St Luke's CE (A) Primary School

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Regular school attendance brings enormous benefits to individual pupils, their families, schools and the community as a whole. Without regular attendance, levels of attainment suffer and opportunities are missed to obtain maximum benefit from education.

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Persistent absence and lateness will affect a child’s achievement and progress in school. Comprehensive research shows that there is a direct link between a child’s level of school attendance and their level of school attainment.

As a Parent /Carer, it is your legal responsibility to ensure your child receives a suitable full-time education. It is your responsibility that your child attends school each day and is on time.

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Children with attendance less than 95% are identified as a concern if absences are unauthorised.

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Monitoring Attendance

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All children’s attendance figures will be monitored weekly 

• Attendance staff will meet weekly to analyse attendance patterns 

• Individual and whole school attendance, punctuality figures discussed and ways forward suggested. 

• Children causing concern will be discussed along with actions taken and progress towards targets.

• All parents receive a letter if attendance falls below 95%. 

• Children with attendance less than 95% are identified as causing concern 

• Children who are regularly late are also identified as causing concern 

 

 

Procedures for when attendance is causing concern

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• If at the attendance meeting the child’s attendance/punctuality continues to cause concern. Parents/carers are invited to attend an attendance/punctuality meeting in school where a EHA (Early Help Assessment) will be offered 

• The pupil’s attendance/punctuality will be monitored until it is no longer a concern 

• If a child’s absence remains a cause of concern and after intervention by the school which will include unauthorised absences, then a referral to the Local Authority will be made. 

• The Local Authority will ask to meet with parents and school along with other professionals such as the school nurse to discuss absence issues. 

• If parents/carers fail to attend meetings to discuss attendance issues and attendance or punctuality does not improve within a specific time a Penalty Notice could be served. 

• Further absence or lateness could result in further court action and a custodial sentence.

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From time to time children are sick (vomit) either at home or at school. Unfortunately it is not possible to distinguish between the causes, and therefore it is essential that the same rule of exclusion applies in all cases of vomiting or Diarrhoea.

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In the Health Protection Agency document, “Guidelines for the Control of Infection and Communicable Disease in School and Early Years Settings”, the guidance is:

 

Diarrhoea and Vomiting exclusion

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Diarrhoea and/or vomiting commonly affects children and staff and can be caused by a number of different germs, including viruses, parasites and bacteria. Infections can be easily spread from person to person (by unwashed hands), especially in children. In general, it is recommended that any staff member or child with diarrhoea and/or vomiting symptoms must stay away or be excluded from the school or early years setting until they have been free of symptoms for 48 hours (the ‘48 hour rule’) and feel well. Personal hygiene whilst ill must be very strict.

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If your child is sick at school, we will ask you or your emergency contact to take your child home. They should not return for 48 hours. We appreciate that this is inconvenient in many cases, and you may not believe your child is ill, but you will appreciate that we do this in all cases and it should reduce the risk of infection for all children in school.  As an example, if your child is sick at lunchtime on a Tuesday, they should not return to school until after lunch on Thursday, provided there have not been any further episodes of vomiting.

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Thank you for your understanding with this.  Further guidance on infection control may be found on the Public Health England Website.

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Local Authority Attendance Letter

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