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Attendance

Mission Statement

It is our aim for all pupils at Healdswood Infant and Nursery School to achieve their full potential.  All children must attend school regularly in order to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them, through a rich and varied curriculum. Teachers plan carefully sequenced lessons for the children’s learning and prolonged and persistent absence will severely affect their knowledge and skills in key areas of their learning.  Many children benefit from additional intervention programmes and their absence will result in the gaps in their understanding widening not closing. 

Our aim is for all children to make excellent progress and this will not be achieved without good attendance.

Our partnership with parents and carers is paramount, as our children’s educational success rests on a combination of a firm home-school foundation and strong communication links between the two.  All staff are dedicated to supporting children and their families to ensure each child attends school regularly and punctually, as it is widely acknowledged that the link between attendance and achievement are intrinsically linked.

The school has a system of incentives and rewards which acknowledges the efforts of pupils and parents/carers to improve their attendance and timekeeping, but will also challenge those parents/ carers who give low priority to attendance and punctuality.  

Healdswood Infant & Nursery School has an effective system of communication with parents (by telephone and Class Do-jo) and the appropriate agencies to provide information, advice and support, recognising the need for confidentiality at all times.  It is a shared responsibility of pupils, parents/carers, teachers, Senior Management, Governors and the Head Teacher.

Our target is that all children should attend school for at least 95% of the time.

Expectations

Parents are expected to: 

  1. Provide the school with up to date home and emergency contact details. 
  2. Ensure their child attends school regularly, as is their legal duty as parents. 
  3. Contact the school on the first and each subsequent day of absence, unless a definite date of return is known.
  4. Parents should offer reasons for absence but whether or not the absence is marked as authorised is a decision that can only be made by the school. 
  5. Ensure their child arrives in school on time, well prepared for the school day. School opens at 8:45am for an early drop off and a prompt start at 9.00am. Classroom doors are locked at 9.00am.  Morning Nursery should arrive by 8.35am and afternoon nursery by 12.20pm.
  6. Contact the school in confidence whenever any problems occur that may affect their child’s attendance or performance in school. 
  7. In some circumstances provide evidence from a medical professional for prolonged absence (also see Unauthorised Absence). 

Parents and children can expect the following from school: 

  1. Regular and prompt recording of attendance. 
  2. Early contact with parents when a child doesn’t attend school without providing a good reason. 
  3. The use of a computerised system to record registers (ScholarPack) to ensure consistency across the school.
  4. Rewards for good and improved attendance.
  5. Students with attendance below 95%, whether absences are authorised or not, will be closely monitored.  Any children arriving after 9:30am, when the register has closed, without a reasonable explanation will be marked with a ‘U’ code which counts as an unauthorised absence for the morning session. Any child arriving between 9.10am and 9.30am will be marked with an ‘L’ for ‘Lateness’. Please see our “Lateness and Punctuality” section for more information on this. 
  6. Home visit- The Local Authority Advice is as follows:

‘Visiting parents/carers and students at their homes is a reasonable and suitable response to attendance concerns. It will often be the first contact with a family and will establish a line of communication and hopefully form a positive working relationship’. (Notts County Council - Improving School Attendance: A Toolkit for Maintained schools, August 2021).

Unauthorised Absences 

As per our “Expectations”, parents should contact the school on the first and each subsequent day of absence, unless a definite date of return is known. If parents do not contact the school within 24 hours of an absence then this will be marked as unauthorised. 

If your child has been absent for 3 days or more with either illness or unauthorised absence over a 6 week rolling period, it would be really helpful if you could provide any evidence for any dates that your child may have be absent for so we can formally authorise them. This could be 3 consecutive days or 3 separate days over a 6 week period. However, as mentioned previously, whether or not the absence is marked as authorised is still a decision that can only be made by the school. 

Where your child has been absent due to attending a medical appointment, the school must receive evidence in order for this to be approved. This could be a letter detailing an appointment or could simply be an appointment card/ email / text message.  Parents are encouraged to contact the school if they are unsure as to what qualifies as ‘evidence’. 

Holidays in Term Time

The Government outlines:

You must get permission from the head teacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time. You can only do this if:

  • You make an application to the head teacher in advance (as a parent the child normally lives with).
  • There are exceptional circumstances.
  • It will be up to the head teacher’s discretion how many days your child can be away from school or if leave is granted.

Please see: https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

The Local Authority outlines:

  • The law states that for your child to be considered to attend school regularly they must be at school every day they are required to be there by the head teacher. This was confirmed in a Supreme Court ruling in 2017.
  • The head teacher will decide whether to agree the leave of absence and whether this is marked as authorised or unauthorised in the attendance register.
  • Please note that head teachers are only permitted to agree a leave of absence in term time for exceptional circumstances.

Please visit:  www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-discipline-and-exclusions/attendance-absence-truancy  for more information on this. 

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