Why is good attendance important to us?
Children are safer, healthier and more successful when they attend school regularly. Improving school attendance is therefore in everyone’s interest and we consider this to be everyone’s business.
Beyond the obvious legal requirements of parents and carers, we expect that school, families and pupils will work together to ensure that…
• All pupils attend every school day.
• All pupils arrive punctually for every school day.
• All pupils arrive with the correct equipment for every school day.
What are our daily routines?
8.15am – Our free daily breakfast club is available for all pupils in the school canteen. This is supervised by our welfare staff and Year leaders.
8.45am – Pupils move to their morning meetings where they line up in their form groups to be met and greeted by their form tutors and Year leader.
9:00am – Form / registration begins & school gates lock – pupils arriving after this time register at pupil reception and receive a late (L) mark.
9.10am – Lessons begin. All pupils should have registered and be ready to start their learning with the correct equipment.
9.30am – Registration closes. Pupils arriving after this time receive a U mark, indicating they arrived late and after registration closed
If your child has to be absent we would ask that you inform school as soon as possible to prevent the Attendance Office from having to contact you. A message can be left on the school answerphone (01254 231051) any time up to 8.30am or at reception from 8.30am onwards. Alternatively our Attendance Officer (Mrs Livesey) can be emailed directly via liveseyj@rhyddings.co.uk
How will we ensure our children are safe and tackle absence together?
Every morning our form tutors will take a session register and spend time talking with the pupils in their form. They will look to identify any concerns or problems that pupils could face across the day and will look to support or seek further help from the Head of Year.
Weekly, form tutors will have conversations with individual pupils about their attendance and encourage them to Go4Green.
If a child is absent from school and a parent / carer has not informed us of a reason, the Attendance Officer will contact home. If they cannot confirm a suitable reason for absence a home visit may be required; this may be by our Attendance Officer, Educational Welfare Officer, Head of Year or a combination of staff, as deemed necessary and appropriate at the time.
Absence concerns requiring extra interventions and / or an attendance contract will increase the team of school staff that work with and support the family. This can involve an Early Help Assessment.
Governors will have a role in exploring how school and home can work together to overcome any attendance barriers through our termly Governors’ attendance panel meetings. At these meetings families are invited to attend a review with us and discuss the progress being made against their child’s attendance targets and to explore any further requirements to help this improvement. This may involve more formalised support through external agencies.
If we feel that attendance issues are putting a child’s safety at risk and that they are missing too much school (considering the inherent advantages and opportunities that being in school brings) we will pursue enforcement actions through the Local Authority. This can result in fines and court action if attendance does not show significant improvement despite the efforts of school staff and other agencies to support the family.
