School Attendance
Attendance at Spring Lane Primary School
For a child to reach their full educational achievement, a high level of school attendance is essential. Spring Lane Primary staff are committed to providing an education of the highest quality for all our pupils and endeavour to provide an environment where all pupils feel valued and welcome. Parents and pupils play a part in making our school so successful. Every child has a right to access the education to which they are entitled. Parents and teachers share the responsibility for supporting and promoting excellent school attendance and punctuality for all.
It is our duty to consistently strive to achieve a goal of 100% attendance for all children. Every opportunity will be used to convey to pupils and their parents or carers the importance of regular and punctual attendance.
For our children to take full advantage of the educational opportunities offered, it is vital your child is at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.
The routines children develop around attendance and punctuality at school are the same as the expectations of any future employer in the world of work. High progress rates, confidence with peers and staff and future aspirations depend on good attendance.
Good attendance is important because:
- Statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and absence 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, secondary school, higher education, employment or training
The foundation for good attendance is a strong partnership between the school, parents and the child. We will work with parents to ensure our expectations of what parents will need to do to ensure their child achieves good attendance are clear.
To help us all to focus on this, we will:
- Provide information on all matters related to attendance in our regular newsletter and on our website
- Report to you on how your child is performing in school, what their attendance and punctuality rate is and how this relates to their attainments
- Celebrate good attendance by awarding certificates for 100% attendance each term
Attendance Concerns
At Spring Lane Primary School, children’s attendance is monitored.
A child is persistently absent if their attendance is below 90%. Over an academic year, a persistently absent child loses misses at least 100 school hours which has a significant impact on their progress and attainment. Click on the button below to view the procedure in place if attendnace drops below 95%.
Leave of Absence
The government expects schools and local authorities to:
Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence.
Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled; and, act early to address patterns of absence.
Parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.
Ensure all pupils to be punctual to their lessons.
You can only allow your child to miss school if they’re too ill to go in, or you’ve got advance permission from the school.
If your child is sick, please contact the school on;
The Senior Leadership Team cannot authorise children going on holiday during term time.
Should you need to request time off for exceptional circumstances, please complete the leave of absence request form which can be obtained via the office or at the bottom of this page.
Please do not email the office requesting leave for your child – the correct form must be completed before consideration is given for any requested absence.
You can be fined for taking your child on holiday during term time without the school’s permission.
If you do wish to apply for a leave of absence, please complete the leave of absence form which can be collected from the main office and must also be returned to the main office and authorized by Head of School and Attendance lead before any absence is taken.