Attendance
Attendance is important to us at Padiham Green Primary School. Although the Local Authority's target is 96% we strive for every child's attendance to be as high as it possibly can, however, following a review of this Local Authority attendance target and targets set by other primary schools in our area, we have updated our attendance figure to 96%*.
We appreciate that sometimes your child’s attendance may fall below this requested level and it is important that any issues are addressed early on to avoid a persistent absence problem. We encourage all of our parents/carers to contact school to talk to our pastoral support team to allow us to work with you to improve your child's attendance.
Here you will find some ways in which aim to achieve this:
You will be contacted if your child is absent from school and we have had no explanation for this absence. It is therefore, very important that you contact us if your child is too unwell to attend school. You can do this by either by leaving a message using our absence mailbox, emailing parents@padihamgreen.lancs.sch.uk or via the School Spider absence request form.
We willl send termly attendance updates to all Parents/Carers.
We will publish weekly attendance figures for each class on our newsletter.
You will be asked to attend a meeting with the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher if your child's attendance is not satisfactory. You may be asked to sign a parental attendance agreement.
We may involve the school nurse if we feel the need to resolve medical absences.
We will request support from the Local Authority where we have concerns about attendance.
We will continue to recognise and encourage regular attendance and punctuality with all our pupils.
Reducing Illness Days
When a child has a day off we must be notified by a parent or carer as to why. This can be via phone, app or email (parents@padihamgreen.lancs.sch.uk). If we do not receive notification and are unable to contact you a home visit may be completed. If we do not receive an explanantion for absence, this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.
If your child is saying they do not feel well and you are unsure about whether it warrants a day off please send them to school. If they are truly ill we will ring you.
If your child has to attend a medical or dental appointment please do your best to have it outside of school time. These can be made for after school or during the school holidays. If this is not possible then please make appointments to minimise the amount of school time missed. If your child is attending a morning appointment please try and bring them to school first to get their mark and then return them to school afterwards.
Please be aware that if you child arrives after 9.30am (when the registers close) this will be marked as an unauthorised absence and this will have a detrimental effect on your child’s attendance.
‘Leave’ in school time
If you need to request ‘leave’ in term time there has to be exceptional reasons as to why the leave needs to be taken. School will not be able to grant permission if the reason is ‘cost’ as it is the same for everyone and leave will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. Please do not book a holiday and then ask permission. Holiday/leave request forms can be obtained from the school office. Please note that both parents have responsibility for children’s attendance along with anyone else who has parental responsibility (anyone who has responsibility for ensuring your child is in school such as parent’s partners).
We follow the Local Authorities attendance guidance and as such unauthorised term-time leave meeting penalty notice criteria may result in a penalty notice for one or both parents.
If leave is requested both parents will be informed of the outcome of the request and whether a penalty notice will be applicable.
There are 190 statutory school days in one year. That means there are 175 days (weekends & school holidays) available to use for holidays.
A 2 week holiday in school time means your child has approximately 50 hours of missed work to catch up on.
If you take your child on a 2 week holiday in term time, attendance for the year immediately drops to 95%.
Punctuality
Poor punctuality or leaving before the end of the school day is not acceptable.
School data shows a link between poor attendance & under-achievement.
Pupils who arrive late and/or leave early also disrupt lessons, which can be embarrassing for the child and can in turn, encourage absence. It is also extremely disruptive for the rest of their class.
If your child is due to arrive late, please contact school to let us know of the reason why and if they require a school lunch ordering.
* The 2022/2023 attendance policy lists our attendance target as 98%, this was accurate at the time of publication, but following a recent review this figure has been changed to 96%.