Objectives

Victoria Road Primary school seeks to ensure that all pupils receive a full-time education which maximises opportunities for each pupil to achieve their best educational outcomes. All school staff will work with pupils and their families to ensure each pupil attends school regularly and punctually. We aim to achieve attendance of 96% and will inform families if their child's attendance falls below 96%.

General principles

Good attendance means that children usually make good, consistent progress in their school work. We rely on our partnership with parents and carers to ensure that this is achieved. Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends school regularly, and on time.

Parents must contact the school if their child is absent by phoning the school office on the first day of absence. If the school does not have prior notification of a absence we will contact parents by telephone to confirm the child's whereabouts.

The school must be informed of any planned absence in advance. Any request for essential absence should be made to the school in writing (an Absence Request Form is available from the school office). If a child needs to be taken out of school during the day for an appointment, parents must advise the school office and provide evidence of the appointment (appointment slip from doctors or dentist, hospital letter etc). It is preferable for parents to try, whenever possible, to make appointments outside of school hours.

Our children are praised for good attendance. The class achieving the highest attendance percentage for the week is recognised in our weekly assembly as well as on the newsletter and they get to have a cuddly in their class for the week. Children achieving 100% attendance for each term are awarded a certificate.

If sufficient unauthorised absences accumulate, the school will take steps and involve the Trust's Education Welfare officer.

Holidays

You are strongly encouraged not to take children on holiday during term time. The school is only able to authorise holidays and time off from school if it meets a strict set of exceptional circumstances. Even a small amount of time  taken during term time will have an impact upon a child's education.

Lateness

Being late into school can be distressing for the child and disrupts the normal morning registration process for the whole class. Our school day starts at 8.40. Registers are taken once the door closes at 8.40, if a child arrives after this time they will be marked as Late (before registration closes). Children arriving after 9.15 will be marked as Late (after registration closes) which is an unauthorised absence. Children arriving after 8.40 must be brought into school via the school office and signed in as late.