Key Attendance Contacts:

Admissions Contact: Mrs Philippa Price 

Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion: Mrs Gabrielle Deed

Education Welfare Officer: Mrs Gemma Wythe

The Importance of Good School Attendance:

Department for Education guidelines suggest that your child should be able to achieve at least 96% attendance each year. Allowing for the usual coughs and colds, this is our expectation for all pupils. We see the encouragement of punctuality and good attendance as important qualities in your child’s educational journey. As a school we do all that we can to ensure maximum and punctual attendance for all pupils. We hold monthly meetings with our Education Welfare Officer to review attendance across the school; looking at;

• Low attendance

• Poor attendance patterns such as disrupted weeks

• Lateness

• Reasons for absence

Actions that follow are varied depending on each individual circumstance, these might include a meeting with the Assistant Headteacher, Attendance and Admissions Officer or the Education Welfare Officer in the first instance, moving to a legal response, if improvement has not been made.

Illness:

Children should not be kept off school for vague symptoms such as tiredness or headache. However, a child who is obviously unwell at the beginning of the day should not be sent to school.

In consideration of your own child and others:

• Please do not send your child to school within 48 hours of the last occasion of vomiting and/or diarrhoea.

• Please do not send your child with any infectious diseases even if they seem well – they will be sent home and you will be asked to seek medical advice/medication.

Should your child become ill during the day you will be contacted through your designated contact number. If your child’s attendance drops below 90%, medical evidence (usually a letter from your GP) will be required in order to authorise further medical absences.

Absence: 

If your child is absent it is important that you telephone the school office on each day that they are unable  to attend. Where a reason for an absence is not provided this will be marked as Unauthorised. Unauthorised absences are discussed with the Education Welfare Officer, and can result in prosecution and fines.

Raising Concern: 

You will receive a concern letter if your child's attendance drops below 97%. Then a concern letter will be sent if attendance drops below 92%.  If attendance continues to fall, a fixed penalty notice will be issued, unless there is a history of poor attendance, in which case a warning letter and fast track meeting will be arranged. See diagram below of further information.

At Orwell Multi Academy Trust, we expect all children to be in school every day, unless they are too ill to attend. Term time holiday will not be authorised and will result in a fine. Unauthorised absence will result in legal intervention.

Every school in the Trust has staff who can support you with your child’s attendance, so we ask that you work with us to ensure that your child is in school, on time, every day.