Attendance and Holidays
Attendance Matters
Moordown St John’s CE Primary School is committed to working in partnership with parents to ensure children have the best opportunity to achieve their academic potential. In order for children to learn effectively and make progress in school it is essential they attend regularly and consistently.
One of the methods employed to support this crucial aim is to monitor pupil attendance. Meetings are held every half term, involving the Senior Leadership team, a Director and the School Admin Manager, to review the attendance of all pupils.
The expectation is that all pupils will attain at least 96% attendance. If a child’s attendance falls to 90% or below for any reason they are considered by the Government to be a ‘Persistent Absentee’.
In cases where attendance/punctuality is a concern, parents/carers will be written to and may be invited to meet with school staff to identify and plan appropriate action/support to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school. The BCP Council can issue penalty notices or institute legal proceedings if parents/carers do not cooperate in ensuring their child’s attendance at school.
If you have any concerns about your child’s attendance, please discuss them with his/her class teacher in the first instance to ascertain what support the school can offer.
We are proud of our attendance record and are grateful to our supportive parents and carers who work with us to promote and encourage good attendance and punctuality by their children.
Good attendance is important because:
- statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and attendance below 95%
- Regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically
- Regular attenders find school routines, school work and friendships easier to cope with
- Regular attenders find learning more satisfying
- Regular attenders are more successful in transferring between primary school and secondary school.
For more information on how the school seeks to work with parents/carers to promote good attendance and punctuality please see our Attendance Policy.
Leave of Absence
As you will be aware, schools are no longer permitted to grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are EXCEPTIONAL circumstances. Leave will not be authorised during year group testing periods; Penalty Notices will be issued for any leave taken during this time. Please see the School Office for the relevant dates.
Examples of Exceptional Circumstances
All requests for holiday/leave in term time must be submitted to the Headteacher on the
Leave in Term Time Request form.
In order to make the decision whether to authorise leave or not, parents/carers may be asked to provide evidence supporting their circumstances. The Leave in Term Time Request form should be completed and returned to the School Office before booking the proposed leave.
Please be aware that Penalty Notices can be issued per parent, per child for unauthorised absence from school, for unauthorised leave taken in term time and/or for pupils stopped during a truancy patrol (£60 if paid within 21 days; £120 if paid within 28 days as at 1 March 2022.) BCP Council will issue Penalty Notices on behalf of our School.
Child Missing Education
If your child is unable to come to school please ensure the reason is communicated by phone/text message as soon as possible on the first day of absence. A child who is absent without a reason being provided is considered a safeguarding matter.
If a child is not seen and contact has not been established with any of the named parents/carers after 3 days’ of absence, the school will make all reasonable efforts to establish the whereabouts of the child, including making enquiries to known friends and the wider family. School staff may also visit the family home. It may be necessary to start ‘Child Missing in Education’ procedures.
The School has a legal duty to report to the Local Authority any pupil who is absent without explanation for 10 consecutive days. The Local Authority will commence ‘ Child Missing Education’ procedures which include visiting the child’s home and alerting other key services to locate the child.
Please help us to help you and your child by ensuring you always let us know the reason for any absence and by ensuring you keep us updated of all changes to your contact details.
Exclusion from School
Exclusions from school is a consequence for certain behaviours and is a sanction that we use only rarely. It is one of the most serious sanctions and if a child is excluded they will be provided with work to do for the period of their exclusion. A fixed term exclusion is used for a serious breach of our behaviour policy or repeated breaches of our policy. Should it be necessary to exclude a child from school we will work alongside their family to do all we can to prevent a recurrence. Part of this process is a re-integration interview, usually with the the Headteacher, before the child returns to school. Any exclusion from school would be in line with the latest Department for Education (DfE) guidance which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-exclusion
