Attendance

We are here to help you ensure your child comes to school every day and on time.

Attendance Team

Our Attendance Team monitor 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 for our children and ask that you support us with ensuring your child regularly attends and is on time.

We cannot be complacent where there are 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. 

•  Weekly Attendance Team meeting.
•  Each Key Phase has a Learning and Pastoral Care Mentor who works closely with children and families to support and encourage good attendance and punctuality.
•  Learning Mentors deliver weekly attendance groups to targeted children with the aim of improving the children’s attendance over time.
•  Late door – a member of the Attendance Team will greet you daily at the Main Entrance if your child arrives after 9am.
•  Daily home visits for unexplained/unauthorised absences.
•  Parent Workshops aimed at improving Attendance and Punctuality. 
•  Family Meetings e.g. Exceptional Leave, Persistence Absences/Lateness, Improvement.

Please visit the School Office if you wish to make an appointment to speak to a member of our Attendance Team.

Understanding Types of Absence:

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical appointments and emergencies.

An absence is classified as Unauthorised, if the reason is not recognised as acceptable. 

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

• A birthday.
• A shopping trip/Day trips.
• Poor weather (school will let you know if it is unsafe to open due to snow)
• 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
• Holidays.

The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as what is acceptable and what is not. Families with regular unauthorised absence will be monitored by a Cluster Attendance Officer, or Attendance Officers from BCL Attendance. BCL School Attendance Support 

Let School Know if Your Child is Going to be Absent

If your child has a medical appointment or is considered too ill to attend school due to a minor illness you must:  

• Contact the School Office (01132 350539) from 8.00am for the first day of absence, and no later than 9:00am, informing them of the reason for your child’s absence. You can also send a message via Arbor. Proof of medical appointments or illness will be requested for any child whose attendance is below 90%. 

• If your child's attendance is below 92% then it would be routine for our Learning Mentors or BCL Attendance officers to carry out a home visit. 

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

• Day 1 - Phone call home or home visit
• Day 2/3 - Home visit
• Day 5 - Follow up home visits
• Day 10 - Cluster Attendance Officer welfare check We have a duty of care to ensure your child’s safety as well as their regular school attendance.

If you are unsure whether to keep your child off school, please talk to the School Office or a any member of staff. Or you can visit the NHS Website links below.

Infectious Illnesses in Children

The 2013 amendments made it clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term-time unless ‘exceptional circumstances’ prevail. The regulations also state that head teachers should determine the number of school days a pupil can be away from school in the event that leave is granted for ‘exceptional circumstances’.

If You Require Exceptional Leave: 

Please visit the School Office to collect an Exceptional Leave Request form which must be completed in full. Please DO NOT book flight tickets/arrange travel until the headteacher has reviewed your Exceptional Leave form.

Should your Exceptional Leave request be unauthorised and you still decide to go, you will be invited to meet with Mr Ali and another member of the Attendance Team to discuss this further. We will require you to bring proof of travel, medical information etc. 

Unauthorised Exceptional Leave could result in a Fixed Penalty Fine, and your child could lose their school place.

Guidelines for Exceptional Leave

• The decision to authorise a pupil’s absence is wholly at the head teacher’s discretion based on the pupil’s attendance, attainment and merits of each request. 
• It is acceptable to take a pupil’s record of attendance into account when making absence related decisions.
• It is important to note that the head teachers can determine the length of the authorised absence as well as as whether a particular absence can be authorised.
• If an event or leave can be reasonably scheduled outside of term-time then it would be not normal to authorise absence for such an event – holidays are therefore not considered as ‘exceptional circumstances’.
• Absence to visit seriously-ill relatives or for a bereavement of close family member are usually considered to amount to ‘exceptional circumstances’, but for the funeral service only, not for extended leave.
• Absences for important religious observances are often taken into account but only for the ceremony and travelling time, again, not for extended leave. This is intended for one-off situation rather than regular or recurring events.

Promoting and Celebrating Good Attendance and Punctuality

At Harehills Primary we understand the impact good attendance and punctuality has on our children’s learning and we believe in rewarding good attendance and punctuality to engage and motivate our children. We have many initiatives to support and celebrate attendance and punctuality so that it remains a high profile in school and with our families.

Some of the ways in which we promote and celebrate good attendance and punctuality:

• Key Phase celebration assembly weekly to award the class with the best attendance a trophy and certificate.
• All classroom doors have an Attendance poster called ‘the Scores on the Doors’ which is updated weekly with the class’ attendance.
• Every year group has an attendance board to record individual classes’ weekly attendance percentage. 

• At the end of the year, there are prizes for the best class as well as for all children who achieve 98%+ attendance. e.g a bouncy castle experience or trip to the park/bowling etc. 

• Individual class attendance is shared on Class Dojo each half term. 

• For those children who require support on an individual basis, a bespoke reward system is in place.  

   

Play Classopoly:

All classes in school aim to achieve at least 96% attendance for the week, and if they do so, they get to roll the dice and play Classopoly in assembly. Prizes such as extra playtime, milkshakes, book vouchers, baking, arts and crafts are all up for grabs! 

Arrive On Time Every Day

It is very important that all children arrive to school on time every day. Start time is 8.45am for F1 and Y5-Y6 (doors close at 8:55am) and 8.50am for years F2 –Y4  (doors close at 9am) If your child arrives after these times they are late and will not be able to come into school via their usual morning entrance. You should make your way to the main school entrance with your child where a member of the Attendance Team will greet you outside the school office. 

Please note that if your child arrives to school later than 9.30am, we are required to mark them as ‘absent late’ (which is not an authorised absence) for that half day session. This could lead to a penalty notice fine.  

If your child is regularly late, you will be asked to accompany your child to the classroom along with a member of the Attendance Team, and to attend a meeting to discuss how punctuality can be improved. 

Did you know…?

Just 5 minutes late every day adds up to over 3 school days missed in a year.

Be an Early Bird and come to our Rise & Shine Breakfast Club every morning before school…