Attendance
At Marsh Green Primary School, we believe that children cannot learn effectively if they are absent from school. High attainment and progress are dependent on excellent attendance. Therefore, we aim to ensure that all pupils take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them and we maintain standards by promoting high levels of attendance and punctuality.
Legal situation
All parents and carers have a legal duty to ensure that their child receives an education. Failure to ensure your child’s regular attendance is a criminal offence. The Education Act 1996 clearly states that the prime responsibility of parents and carers is to ensure that their children attend school regularly.
In addition, the Department for Education statutory guidance on school attendance parental responsibility measures sets clear expectations for what is expected from parents and carers regarding attendance of their child in school. If a child’s attendance falls below 90%, they are considered to be persistently absent.
Attendance target for all pupils
At Marsh Green Primary School, we have a target of 96.5% attendance and above for all pupils, which allows for children to have occasional days off if they are too unwell to attend school.
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Benefits of regular attendance
- Your child has access to a full curriculum.
- Your child has access to daily high-quality teaching.
- Your child builds strong relationships with their peers and adults in school.
- Higher potential for learning gaps to be bridged.
- Opportunities for your child to be pushed to exceed expectations.
- Helps your child learn the importance of coming to school and learning.
Impact of low attendance
- Missed learning creates learning gaps that increase when further days are missed.
- Children can develop low self-esteem due to gaps in their knowledge and learning.
- Children can develop low self-esteem due to a lack of opportunity to develop strong relationships with their peers and adults in school.
- Children are unable to access the complete curriculum.
Strategies for promoting good attendance
- Termly attendance celebration assemblies are led by the Attendance Manager and Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher.
- Weekly raffle tickets are given by the class teacher for 100% attendance and perfect punctuality. These are put into a raffle for a bicycle at the end of the summer term (one for KS1 and one for KS2).
- In the Summer term attendance celebration assembly, badges and certificates are awarded for bronze, silver and gold level attendance. Attendance Teds and badges are also awarded for 100% attendance for the whole year.
- Attendance charts in each classroom indicate which children have earned a raffle ticket each week.
- We recognise the winning class for attendance and punctuality in our weekly celebration assembly.
- Class attendance is regularly reported and celebrated in the school newsletter.
- Teachers play an active role in promoting our shared value of excellent attendance and punctuality.
- The Attendance Manager builds excellent relationships with parents to promote excellent attendance and communicate issues quickly, so that expectations are clear from the outset.
Holidays during term time
The school will not authorise any holiday to be taken during term time.
Any term-time leave must be for exceptional circumstances only, which must be backed up by evidence supplied by the parent or carer. Please see our Attendance Policy for more detailed information.
Absence
In the case of your child being unwell and unable to attend school, please telephone the school office and speak to the Attendance Manager. If we do not hear from you, the Attendance Manager will telephone you to enquire about your child’s whereabouts. A period of absence of 5 days or more will require medical certification. Any incident of sickness or diarrhoea will necessitate your child remaining off school for 48 hours from the last bout of sickness or diarrhoea.
Please be aware that absence due to illnesses or appointments may not be automatically authorised. Your child's attendance record and the specific circumstances of the absence will be taken into consideration at these times.
We do acknowledge that there will be certain occasions where absence from school is necessary for religious observances and individual family circumstances.
Lateness
It is important that children are punctual for school, and need to arrive ready for learning before registers close. After this, they will be marked as late and need to sign in at the main office. Lateness can prove detrimental to children’s learning and wellbeing; even short delays can swiftly add up to much lost learning time.
Details of our school opening hours can be found here.
Concerns about attendance
Where there are concerns about the attendance pattern of a child, the Attendance Manager will discuss the matter with our BDSIP Attendance Advisor in their fortnightly meeting (BDSIP is an organisation that provides attendance support to schools in Barking and Dagenham and works with the school to support families to ensure that their children attend school every day). Appropriate action may then include a letter home, an invitation to a meeting or a home visit.
Legal sanctions
The school or local authority can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age.
If issued with a fine or penalty notice, each parent must pay £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. The payment must be made directly to the local authority.
The decision whether or not to issue a penalty notice may take into account:
- The number of unauthorised absences occurring within a rolling academic year.
- One-off instances of irregular attendance, such as holidays taken in term time without permission.
- Where an excluded pupil is found in a public place during school hours without a justifiable reason.
If the payment has not been made after 28 days, the local authority can decide whether to prosecute or withdraw the notice.
More detailed information can be found in our school’s Attendance Policy.