Attendance and Absence
If you wish your child to make steady progress, regular attendance is essential. It is your legal responsibility to make sure that your child attends school everyday.
Please telephone the school or send a note addressed to the Head Teacher should your child be absent. As we are required to submit figures of authorised and unauthorised absences, it is essential that the reason for a child’s absence is reported to the school and is deemed to be a satisfactory explanation. Any absences for which no satisfactory reason is reported will be submitted as an “unauthorised” absence.
If your child is ill whilst at school, you will be notified immediately. Please ensure that telephone numbers are provided.
Pupils should be in school in time for the beginning of each session. Latecomers disturbing the classes can easily disrupt lessons. However, if a child is delayed for some reason, telephone the school and send the pupil to school as soon as possible.
Absences
If your child is not able to attend school could you please let us know why by 10 a.m. on the first morning they are absent. If your child has a medical reason for being absent i.e. dentist appointment, then please let us know whether they will require a dinner.
St Mary’s recorded a Nil Return to DfES for unauthorized absences. This figure is due to the vigilance of our administration staff that checks and record all absence notes and telephone calls from parents advising the school of the reason for their child’s absence.
Authorized absences are mainly due to sickness, hospital and dental appointments. Holidays taken during term time are to be discouraged as these affect your child’s education. Permission is at the discretion of the Headteacher.
The overall % attendance recorded at St Mary’s for actual attendances was 97.3%