Attendance
Every School Day Counts!
Did you know that across the year there are just 190 school days? That means there are already 175 days set aside for weekends, holidays, family visits and rewarding days out.
We believe every school day counts to give your child the greatest opportunity of attaining a good education and to support a happy and healthy future.
With 175 days already marked out as ‘non-school-days’, you should have an exceptional reason to withdraw your child from school.
The following are considered illegitimate reasons and are likely to be rejected and unauthorised:
- Trips to visit family/friends
- Your child's birthday
- Cheaper family holidays
- Tickets to sports/culture events
100% is recognised as an expected level of school attendance. If your child is out of school for 3 days each term, then their attendance is below 95% and they’re spending more days out of school than in it! Should your child need time off due to illness, this figure will quickly become even lower. Because five days of school equates to 25 hours of learning, catching up with extra work out of school is unrealistic.
From a young person’s perspective, missing schools means:
- Missing out on fun projects and school activities
- Struggling to catch up on work
- Disconnecting with school friends
The vast majority of headteachers do not authorise any absence in term time, in fact, many schools refused 100% of requests last year.
If you wish to request withdrawal of your child from learning, you will need to complete a request form which is available from the school office or you can download a copy below.
Attendance procedures:
Chyngton Primary School expect all parents/carers to adhere to the following update procedures whenever your child is absent from school.
If your child is absent, you MUST:-
- Telephone the school, by 8.45am and advise us of your child’s absence, please leave a brief message informing us of your child’s name, class, reason for absence.
- Continue to notify the school on subsequent days of absence
- Send in a signed and dated note confirming the reasons. This must be done for all absences even though you will have previously rung and spoken/left a message
- Or complete and return the ‘return to school’ form (see appendix 2) as soon as possible and return it to the school office.
- Any absence that is not explained with a note or return to school form, will be classed as unauthorised.
Medical Appointments
- We ask that where possible that medical and dental appointment are arranged outside of school hours. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary. Missing registration for a medical or dental appointment is counted as an authorised absence; advance written notice is required for authorising these absences.
Exceptional Leave of absence
- The Head teacher is not allowed to authorise any leave of absence unless it is for exceptional circumstances. Withdrawal from Learning Forms are available from the school office for parents to complete. Permission to take your child out of school is at the discretion of the Head teacher.
The member of staff responsible for attendance at Chyngton Primary School is: Miss Amy Clarke, Deputy Headteacher.
