Attendance

Attendance Lead

Katharine Jordan - Headteacher

Attendance officer 

Jennifer Austin 

Respect       Resilience       Responsibility 

Please call the school by 9.30am on the first morning that your child is away.  This helps us to ensure that all children who have left home to come to school have arrived safely. 

Our school gates open at 8.30, registration opens at 8.45 and closes at 9.00. Any child arriving between 9.00 - 9.30 will be marked as late . Pupils arriving later than 9.30 will be marked as an unauthorised absence . 

We are always keen to support families who are finding it difficult to maintain their child’s regular, punctual attendance so please let our Pastoral Team  know if you think we can help you.

Milton Park Primary School seeks to ensure that all its pupils receive a full-time education which maximises opportunities for each pupil to realise his/her true potential.  The school will strive to provide a welcoming, caring environment, whereby each member of the school community feels wanted and secure. All school staff will work with pupils and their families to ensure each pupil attends school regularly and punctually.

At Milton Park all our teachers plan lessons and experiences to link learning. Planning is detailed and tailored to meet the needs of individual children over time.. Being absent from school means that your child will miss out. Parents can help their children’s learning in many ways, making sure they come into school on time and ready to learn is the most important way. Evidence shows that those children with poor attendance do not achieve as highly as those with good attendance. 

Please let us know if your child is unable to attend school due to illness or if she/he is going to be late. Whenever your child is absent from school, please let us know the reason by note or telephone so we can record this in our attendance register. We operate a First Response System. If a child is absent and we receive no explanation from parents, we will phone parents by 9.30am to ascertain why a child is not at school. We are required by law to count any unexplained absences as unauthorised. A record is kept of a child’s attendance including all absences is included in our annual report to parents. Figures for the whole school are reported to the Department of Education and Local Authority.

Illness

Absence through illness cannot be avoided at times. If your child is too ill to attend school you should inform the office before 9am on the first day of illness and daily thereafter unless an absence period is specified.

Medical Appointments (Doctors, hospital, dentist etc.)

There may be occasions where a pupil needs to attend a hospital appointment. If possible please aim to book these so they do not interfere with the school day. An official appointment letter should be supplied to the school office. Dentist and non- emergency doctor's appointments should be booked outside of the school day. 

Lateness

Our gates open at 8.30 and close at 8.50,  registers close at 9am; children arriving after this time will be entered as late in the register, this is counted as an absence. All children arriving once the playground gates have closed should report to the school reception.

Lateness collecting at the end of the day.

We recognise that there are occasions where parents are delayed , through no fault of their own eg traffic jams. Please contact the school office if you are delayed. Staff may not be available after school to supervise your child therefore your child may be placed in the after school club , which would result normal after school club charges being applied. Repeated late collection may lead to safeguarding concerns. 

Absence without explanation or authorisation.

This will be classed as unauthorised absence and recorded in the register as such. Attendance is monitored by ELAN's Welfare Officer. Unauthorised absence could lead to the Local Authority issuing a penalty notice. 

Absence/Holidays During Term Time

The Headteacher may only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances and will require evidence to validate any request. Term time holidays should not be planned or booked as they are likely to be unauthorised and could lead to the issuing of a fine by the Local Authority. Parents wishing to request leave of absence should email details to the school office email address (office@miltonpark.extendlearning.org) and this will be passed to the Headteacher for approval. An appointment can be made should you wish to discuss absence requests with the Headteacher.

Penalty Notices/Fines

Penalty Notices are issued by the local authority and require each parent of a child of compulsory school age, whose attendance has been unsatisfactory, to pay a penalty, currently £60.00 if paid within 21 days or £120.00 if paid within 28 days. If the Penalty Notice is not paid the case is automatically summonsed to appear in Court. Courts have a wider range of sentencing options, which could include a maximum fine of up to £1000.

Advice

If you require any attendance advice we are here to help and support you. In the first instance speak to your child's class teacher who will be able to signpost to relevant resources or further support from our pastoral team.

Why is good attendance and punctuality important?

Good attendance and punctuality is vital if children are to do their best and make good progress. Research shows that children are much more likely to meet age-related expectations if they have high levels of attendance at school, and we aim to promote this from the very start of their school career. This encourages children to form positive attitudes from a young age, which will influence their approach to work and life in later years. If children understand how important good attendance and punctuality is, they will achieve more in school and will develop good habits for the future.

What if I want to take my child out of school during term time?

• Taking children on holiday or out of school during term time is against the law.
• We understand that holidays during term time may cost less money, but it is still against the law. 
• The school is not allowed to authorise absence during term time, unless there are exceptional reasons. 
• If you do not let us know why your child is not in school their absence will be marked as unauthorised.
• Taking unauthorised holidays could result in a penalty notice from the Local Authority. 

Why does my school check if my child is not in school?

• We have a duty of care and safeguarding responsibility towards your child. 
• If your child is not in school and we are unable to contact you, we have a responsibility to conduct a home visit and inform the Local Authority. 

How do we manage attendance and punctuality?

We work closely with ELAN'S Attendance Officer.  The Attendance Officer makes visits to school to monitor attendance and meet with parents. If there are a significant number of absences, parents are required to meet school staff to discuss how this can be improved. Where attendance falls below 95%, children are tracked by the school for the remainder of the academic year. An official referral to the AO is made if attendance is below 90% at any given time.  In cases of serious persistent absences then Courts Orders are issued. Where children are late, if parents/carers are having difficulty bringing the child/ren to school on time, we will do whatever we can to support them in improving this.