Attendance & Punctuality
At Links Primary, we celebrate good attendance and punctuality.
These are important life skills that will help children grow and succeed. It’s important for parents to support their child by making sure they are at school and trying their best each day.
- Our Attendance Bear, Lincoln, spends a week learning with the class that achieves the highest attendance.
- We have a display board in the hall celebrating good attendance through 'Learning with Lincoln'.
- We have a weekly reward for all classes that achieve a weekly attendance of 95% or over. Those classes receive a 95% ticket at every Friday Assembly and at the end of each half term, the winning class is drawn out. That class receives a mystery treat! In the past, we have had popcorn and a movie, hot chocolate, we have made Smores, decorated gingerbread men and cakes, and even had a disco!
We also recognise the need to tackle any issues surrounding attendance and punctuality and for the last few years, we have been very successful. We have regular attendance panels and a proactive Education Welfare Officer. Research shows that when children miss a lot of school, it can affect how they feel about school and how much they learn and grow.
We are committed to meeting our obligation with regard to school attendance through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:
- Promoting good attendance
- Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence
- Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled
- Acting early to address patterns of absence
- Building strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support in place to attend school
We will also promote and support punctuality in attending lessons.
The School day:
Children should arrive at school by 8:45am. The school gates open at 8:35am, and children in Reception to Year 6 can go straight into class from then. If a child arrives after 8:45am, they will be marked as late. If a child has not arrived and been marked in the register by 9:30am, families will receive an email to check the reason for the absence.
Illness:
NHS guidance on school absence can be found here.
Medical Absence:
Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment. However, we encourage parents/carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.
Special Leave Requests:
Children of school age who are registered at school must, by law, attend that school regularly. Regular attendance is important, not just because the law requires it but because it is the best way of ensuring that a child makes the most of the educational opportunities which are available to him/her. There may be occasions when a child has to miss school – for example, if he or she is unwell. Any other absence should be kept to an absolute minimum. In particular, parents must avoid taking their children out of school during term time to go on holiday. Satisfactory attendance is counted as attendance at or above 96%.
What the law says
The law makes it clear that parents do not have any right to take a child out of school for a term-time holiday except in exceptional circumstances. Headteachers can no longer authorise holiday leave during term time. At Links, governors have decided that these exceptional circumstances will only be considered if a child’s attendance is already at or above satisfactory attendance levels of 96% for the ‘rolling’ year prior to a special leave application being made.
The following reasons do not constitute an acceptable reason for leave to be granted during term time:~
- Availability of cheap holidays
- Availability of desired accommodation
- Poor weather experienced during school holiday periods
- Overlap with the beginning or end of the term
How to apply for special leave during term time
Special Leave Request forms can be collected from the school office. This must be done at least 2 weeks in advance of your proposed leave dates. Fill in the form for the attention of the Headteacher. You should expect to hear from us within 7 working days. Term-time holidays cannot be granted unless there are exceptional circumstances that might justify it and evidence is provided accordingly.
What if I decide to go away anyway? - What will happen?
If you take your child out of school regardless, then this will be counted as unauthorised absence – this is the same as truancy and is treated in the same way – a referral to Education Welfare. Truancy is dealt with severely by the law and you risk a fine and prosecution.
For more information, please see our Attendance & Punctuality policy.
