You can always talk to your child`s class teacher. Alternatively, please make an appointment to see Mrs Summers, Headteacher.
Attendance
The Board of Governors fully recognises that they have a duty to ensure arrangements are in place to ensure that we adhere to the Local Authorities Attendance procedures.
We want to ensure that all our children attend school to ensure they do not develop gaps in their learning and maintain positive routines. As Headteacher and Governors we monitor attendance and aim for the highest possible attendance for our pupils.
Important facts about school attendance:
A 2 week holiday each year in primary school means a total of 14 weeks teaching time missed — this could have a real impact on their basic literacy and numeracy skills. The Government regard 95% as the minimum satisfactory attendance for a primary school pupil. Most children routinely have attendance rates of 97% or more. This is the equivalent of 6 days absence a year. BUT 100% is achieved by many pupils every year in both primary and secondary schools.
In a recent Department for Education report, it states that pupils with no absence are 1.3 times more likely to achieve the expected standard and 3.1 times more likely to achieve greater depth, more than pupils that missed 10-15% of all sessions. If you have 90% attendance record, it means that you are absent from lessons for the equivalent of one half day every week.
As part of our procedures, we keep parents and carers informed of their attendance termly by sending an attendance report. We will also contact parents if it falls below 95%. If attendance of a pupil is below 90%, we may be required contact the Local Authority to support a family through the ‘Early Help Assessment’ process.
Our aim is to ensure we achieve 97% attendance (3% absence) for our school.
- To encourage high attendance we discuss the importance of good attendance and make every effort to ensure pupils enjoy coming to school.
- We reward good attendance – each week the class with the highest attendance receive the ‘Sam’ our attendance tiger cub to recognise their attendance.
- Pupils with 100% attendance at the end of the academic year receive book tokens.
Out of 365 days in the year school is open for 190 days.
Ensuring children have good attendance is important because:
- Children need to be part of an entire sequence of lessons in order to get the most for them
- Routines become unclear if children miss school regularly
- Friendships and relationships become harder to maintain with persistence absence
- Gaps in children’s learning increase dramatically with increased absence
Punctuality
We also hope that children are punctual, arriving at school on time-registers are taken at 8.45am. Children can become unsettled if they are late and arriving at school on time ensures they settle into the routines of school with their friends. Late arrivals are recorded as such in the electronic register as an unauthorised absence unless there is a specific reason for this such as a medical appointment.
Please ensure your child arrives at school by 8.45am so they:
- can have that valuable time to socialise and catchup with their friends before school;
- enter school with their classmates and have a good start to the day;
- avoid the disruption and upset of entering lessons part way through.
Reporting a child's absence
Please notify the school office if your child is absent. Notification can either be by telephoning 015395 32392 and leaving a message on the school answer machine or by emailing admin@grange.cumbria.sch.uk by 8.45am on the morning of the absence or by reporting the absence via our school app. The nature of the illness must be stated clearly. Absences for which no explanation has been given are required by law to be recorded as unauthorised absences.
We would encourage families to avoid making medical and dental appointments during school hours wherever possible.
Sickness and diarrhoea - children will need to be kept away from school for 48 hours since the last bout of illness to ensure that the infection does not spread to other children or staff.
Holidays in term time
Changes in the law regarding holidays during term time came into effect from the 1st September 2013: parents no longer have any entitlement to take their child on holiday during the school term and schools have lost their dispensation to authorise such holidays entirely.
The Government has issued a list of exceptional reasons which are as follows:
- Family needs arising from service in the armed forces or from a parent working abroad
- Bereavements
- Exceptional family ceremonies
- A holiday necessitated due to a disability or illness in the family
Schools have been advised that the cost of holidays, work rotas of parents and working in tourism / farming can no longer be considered to be exceptional reasons.
Parents are required to write to the headteacher to request any leave of absence. Parents are asked to give as much notice as possible and to include in the letter, as much detail as possible including the reason for the absence. As a consequence of this change there will no longer be a Holiday Request form used by school.
We would like to draw to your attention to the fact that parents can be fined by the Local Authority for taking their child on holiday during term time without consent from school, if they form part of a pattern of absence; we are keen for our parents to avoid finding themselves in this position. Parents are welcome to discuss individual circumstances with the headteacher.
So let’s work together ….
Please do not take your child out of school for holidays.
If you are experiencing any difficulties in ensuring that your child attends school, regularly and on time, please let us know so that we can help.
We want to work with you to achieve the best for your child.
Why does school attendance matter?
Welfare Medicines and Sickness
School is responsible for the general welfare of children: parents are invited to discuss any specific needs they may feel their child has with the appropriate member of staff. The professional skills of the staff are exercised in seeing that each child receives the appropriate care and instruction while at school.
Several members of staff hold a current First Aid qualification and regularly attend update sessions. Minor injuries, such as cuts and bruises, sustained in the rough and tumble of school life are treated simply by washing and bandaging as appropriate. In the case of a serious accident, parents will be informed immediately, and the necessary emergency services alerted as judged appropriate.
If a child falls ill whilst at school, the parent or designated responsible person (relative or friend) will be informed so that the child may be collected and taken home as soon as possible.
If your child requires medicine during school hours, please contact the school office. For temporary medicines we have a form to complete, this will be kept with the medicine when it is taken by or given to your child. Children, who require inhalers or other permanent forms of preventative medication, may bring them to school; school must be informed, and a form completed by the parent/carer and the child concerned must know how and when to use them. We are an asthma friendly school and staff have received training in asthma procedures.
