Attendance

At Linthorpe Primary School, we believe that regular attendance is crucial for a child’s educational development and overall well-being. We are committed to providing a positive and engaging learning environment that encourages every child to attend school regularly.

Regular attendance has a direct impact on a child’s educational attainment, social development, and future prospects. Research has shown that pupils with high attendance rates achieve better academic outcomes and have improved life chances. It is essential for pupils to be present in school to fully benefit from the educational opportunities and support available to them.

Our Attendance Policy

Our Attendance and Punctuality Policy is designed to ensure that all children attend school regularly and punctually. We have set a minimum attendance target of 96% for all our pupils. This means that we expect every child to attend school for at least 96% of the academic year.

If a child’s attendance falls below 96%, we will implement our first layer of intervention. This may involve working closely with parents and carers to understand and address any barriers to regular attendance. We believe in a supportive approach and will work collaboratively to find solutions that help children attend school regularly.

As a supportive school, we are committed to working closely with parents, carers, and the wider community to promote regular attendance. We understand that there may be genuine reasons for occasional absences, and we encourage open communication between parents and the school. Our dedicated Attendance Team are here to listen, understand, empathise and support and provide guidance to ensure that every child has the opportunity to attend school regularly.

Pupils

We encourage all children to keep our three LCPS Attendance Promises:

I will try my best to come to school every day

I will try my best to arrive on time every day

I will try my best to be prepared for school every day.

We ask our children to be an Attendance Champion and live out our LCPS vison of Happy, Healthy, Here by helping us achieve our school Attendance Target of 96% (government expectation). This means that your child needs to attend school for at least 182 out of 190 days to meet national expectations.

Rewards and Incentives

Throughout the year there are a number of rewards available for pupils who have good attendance as well as for pupils who improve their attendance. We want all our pupils to be able to benefit from these rewards by keeping their attendance up and by being on time for school.

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Meet The Attendance Team

Our Attendance Team monitors school attendance and punctuality daily as your child’s learning and well-being is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that working together with parents/carers is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes.

We cannot tolerate instances of persistently low attendance, or if children are regularly late to school. Below are some of the ways we ensure attendance and punctuality remain a high priority in school:

Fortnightly Attendance Team meetings to identify and discuss patterns of absence
Our Care Team and Emotional Well-being Practitioner will work closely with children and families to support and encourage good attendance and punctuality
Weekly attendance assemblies to celebrate classes with good attendance
Well-being sessions with the aim of improving individual pupil attendance over time
Home visits for unexplained/unauthorised absences
Family Meetings
Attendance Success Plans and charts
Working with outside agencies to offer additional support to families
An ambitious curriculum and personal development offer to ensure school is a place where pupils want to be.

Please visit the school office if you wish to make an appointment to speak to a member of the Attendance Team.

Miss Whittaker Mrs McManus Mrs Wase Miss Barrow

Deputy Headteacher Care Team Care Team Emotional Well-being Practitioner

Parents and Carers

Education Welfare Officer

By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. You as the parent or carer, are legally responsible for making sure your children attend on a regular basis. Parents and pupils are supported by the school’s Education Welfare Officer and by the Local Authority to overcome issues that prevent regular school attendance through a wide range of intervention strategies. Where this intervention fails, a penalty notice can be issued for unauthorised absence and if a parent/carer fails to ensure improved attendance. The Department for Education (DfE) provide information for schools as to what is acceptable and what is not with regards to absence. Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

A birthday
A day trip
Visiting relatives
Brother or sister is ill so all children in the family stay off school
Not having uniform ready to wear or can’t find shoes/coat etc
A holiday in term time

If your child does not attend school on a regular basis, you may be fined or prosecuted in court.

Persistent Absence

Persistent absence is defined by the Government as attendance below 90%. This equates to approximately 19 days/ almost 4 weeks absence across the school year. If a child’s attendance drops below 90% this could lead to them becoming a safeguarding concern and also result in the authority taking legal action.

Reporting Absences

To report your child’s absence, we kindly request that parents contact the school by 9 am on the first day of absence. This allows us to accurately record and monitor attendance. To report an absence, please call the school office and choose the option to report a child absent.

If no message is received the following procedure will be followed.

Day 1 – Phone call home or possible home visit

We have a duty of care to ensure your child’s safety as well as their regular school attendance.