Attendance
Is Your Child Missing Out?
Focus on Attendance and Punctuality
Research has shown that regular attendance and good punctuality are crucial factors in students achieving their full potential in education. At Cleeve Primary we wish to work in partnership with parents and carers and so are seeking your full support in ensuring that your child attends school every day and on time. We are always pleased to work together with parents/carers in resolving any difficulties but we are also committed to improving attendance levels at school.
The target attendance figure for all pupils is a minimum of 97% attendance. Based on current attendance figures your child will be placed in one of the following groups below.
Group 1: No Concern
- Green Group
The child attends for 97% - 100% of the time.
Group 2: Concern
- Yellow Group
The child attends for 95% - 96.9% of the time.
Group 3: Risk of Underachievement
– Amber Group
The child attends for 93% - 94.9% of the time.
Group 4: Severe Risk of Underachievement
– Pink Group
The child attends for 90% - 92.9% of the time.
Group 5: Extreme Risk of Underachievement
– Red Group
The child attends for 0% - 89.9% of the time.
Your child will be informed of their Attendance Group by their class teacher. Cleeve Primary School are monitoring students closely whose attendance is falling and will contact you if your child’s attendance does not improve. As a parent/carer you are committing an offence if you fail to ensure that your child attends school regularly and punctually, even if they are missing school without your knowledge. It is important that parents/carers monitor single day’s absence, as these days soon add up to weeks.
At Cleeve Primary School we reward pupils who attend school each day and whose attendance is improving. Students are also rewarded for good punctuality. We acknowledge and reward good attendance by:
- Celebrating attendance, improvement and milestones for classes and individuals using dojos, league table points and certificates.
- Class rewards – the class at the top of their league each term to receive a special prize, e.g. cinema trip, soft play centre visit, disco, bouncy castle, party etc.
- 100% attenders for a whole term are entered into a prize draw to receive a £10 voucher to reward their attendance record.
If you are concerned about this new ‘Focus on Attendance’, there are important steps that you can take:
- Ensure your child attends every day, on time, equipped and ready to learn. The school opens at 8.40am and students should be in the building no later than 8:50am. Students arriving after 9:20am may be marked absent and will require an explanation from the parent/carer or the absence will remain un-authorised.
- Ensure school has up-to-date addresses and telephone numbers. We will contact you if your child is absent and you have not contacted school. This ensures that the absence is quickly identified.
- If your child is ill, contact school on the first day of absence and provide an explanation.
- If you wish to check that your child has arrived at school contact school Attendance Officer, Miss Stephenson or a member of the admin team. They will inform you if your child has been registered.
- If no contact is received regarding the absence, it is recorded as un-authorised. Ultimately school is responsible for deciding if the absence is acceptable or not. Only genuine absence will be authorised. You will be asked to provide medical certificates if your child has a poor attendance record.
- Ensure that medical appointments are made outside of school time.
- Avoid trivial absences such as, buying new shoes/birthdays. This would not be accepted as a reasonable absence.
- Holidays should not be taken in school time. Any Leave of Absence can only be agreed by the Head of School and only agreed where there are exceptional circumstances.
- Respond to letters, telephone calls or visits regarding attendance and punctuality.
- Contact your child’s class teacher if you are experiencing difficulty in getting your child into school.
Thank you for working in partnership with us to achieve the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality at Cleeve Primary School.
The attendance league table
Points are rewarded to each class depending on their weekly attendance. The class at the top of the league table each term (one for lower school, one for upper school) receive a special prize. Prizes will include bowling visits, cinema visits, Build a Bear visits, discos, bouncy castles etc…
Watch this space for the ongoing league table results and the end of term winners!
100% attendance draw
All children who receive 100% attendance for each term are entered into a prize draw where 1 child from each year group wins a £10 voucher.
The winners of the Autumn term draw will appear here -
Reception –
Year 1 –
Year 2 –
Year 3 –
Year 4 –
Year 5 –
Year 6 –
Authorised and unauthorised absences
A polite reminder to parents and carers about the procedures for authorised and unauthorised absences.
- Only the Headteacher (and in her absence a Deputy) can authorise an absence. If a child’s overall attendance is unacceptably low (below 90%), or there are noticeable patterns to absences, their absence will be unauthorised.
- All term-time absences for holidays will be classed as unauthorised. The Headteacher can use discretion in very extreme cases, but this will be rare.
- When attendance is below 90% this may initiate a meeting for the parents with the Education Welfare Officer and a member of the Senior Management Team.
- Concerns about attendance will trigger a letter from the school highlighting low attendance and strategies to improve this.
- More than 20 unauthorised absences (10 school days) maybe subject to a fine.
Authorised absences
These are absences where there are genuine reasons for a child being off school. In most cases this is for an illness which would mean attending school would make that illness worse or could be passed on to other children.
Unauthorised absences
These are absences where there is no justifiable reason as to why a child is absent. This also includes children who are regularly absent, even if a call is made to the office giving a reason.
If a child has 20 unauthorised absences in a term a letter is sent to parents informing them that they face the possibility of a fine if attendance does not improve. This fine is the same as the one issued for term-time holidays.
Persistent Absences
The concept of persistent absence (PA) as a key measure for school absence was first introduced in the 2005/2006 academic year. Since 2015/16, the threshold for persistent absence is when a pupil’s overall absence is 10% or more of their possible sessions. A pupil’s absences may be authorised, unauthorised or a combination of both.
The following outlines Cleeve’s approach to supporting and challenging issues regarding persistent absence.
Punctuality
Whilst we appreciate that most parents and carers understand the importance of punctuality and do their best to get their children to school in time for the bell, we are currently trying to work with parents and carers who find it difficult to get their children to school on time. Please ensure that your children are at school for 8.50am (doors open at 8.40am).
More information regarding attendance can be found in our attendance policy