Attendance and Punctuality

At Bishop David Sheppard CE Primary we believe that good attendance is key to raising standards and to pupil attainment and progress. We also want children in school, happy and settled, so that they can learn. By establishing good attendance routines in Early Years Foundation Stage, this enables us to give all our children a wonderful start to their school years. To support attendance and punctuality we offer a Breakfast club every weekday from 7.45am and free Breakfast club from 8:15am. This is offered to all 3+ years pupils. School doors open from 8.40am and children start learning in class. Registration is 8.45am.

Our target for the whole school attendance is 96%.

Every child has the right to attend school every day. Frequent absence and poor attendance has a detrimental effect on children’s education and emotional development. At Bishop David Sheppard CE Primary School, everyone works together to ensure good attendance.

This is achieved by:

Parent/Carer responsibilities:

• To ensure their child attends school regularly and on time.
• To inform school before 8.40am on the first day of a child’s absence.
• To keep in contact with the school should there be difficult home circumstances requiring support from the school.
• To not take holidays during term time as these will be unauthorised and a penalty notice may be issued (Holidays are strictly not allowed in term time).
• To ensure the school has three current emergency contact names and numbers. The child should know these 3 people.
• To take medical and dentist appointments outside school time if possible.
• To co-operate with the school in our aim to improve attendance.

The School’s Responsibilities:

• Inform parents of their responsibilities for maintaining regular attendance for their child.
• Inform parents regularly of their child’s attendance using the traffic light system.
• 96-100% – Good – Outstanding – GREEN LIGHT
• 90-96% – Satisfactory – AMBER LIGHT
• 90% and below – Unsatisfactory – RED LIGHT
• We aim to support families overcome any difficulties with attendance
• Refer families requiring support to school’s Attendance Team or the Education Welfare Officer.
• We will actively seek Court Prosecution when needed, but we do this as a very last resort.
• We value and reward good attendance; weekly, half termly, termly and annually through certificates, praise in assembly, rewards and class attendance treats.

We will inform you if your child is regularly late for school and we will request an explanation. Parents/carers will be invited into school to discuss this concern with the Attendance Lead (Mrs Sutton) or the Headteacher, in the hope of resolving the problem.

To raise standards, please be aware, letters will be sent from the school’s Attendance Team and Education Welfare Services if there are any concerns.

We will always work with you to support good attendance and punctuality.

Flowchart of procedures for Attendance at Bishop David Sheppard

Stage 1- 96% and above

•  Celebration postcards home each half term
•  Weekly attendance assembly celebration
•  End of term certificates and prizes

Stage 2- 92-96%

• Monitoring letter sent home for awareness of current attendance
• Phone calls and face to face conversations to ascertain barriers and offer support
• Support offered through Team Around the School, SEND team, Pastoral team, Early Help and Mental Health team

Stage 3- 92% and below

• Letter informing of current attendance and invite to Attendance Support Plan meeting with EWO and Attendance Team- attendance to be monitored for minimum of 4 weeks

Stage 4

• Review of Attendance Support Plan- If attendance is improving see stages above. If attendance is continuing to fall and there is a lack of engagement this will lead to a Notice to Improve Letter or referral to the Local Authority Panel

Stage 5

• After monitoring period has lapsed and if there is no improvement, this could lead to prosecution