Attendance and Punctuality
Every day at Long Lee Primary School Counts.
At Long Lee Primary School we are continually striving to raise the attainment of our pupils. We firmly believe that this can be achieved by regular school attendance. Regular attendance is directly linked to raising achievement and develops skills for life.
Why is good attendance important?
Children who come to school regularly are most likely to:
- Achieve good standards of work
- Get on well with other children and have good friendships
- Continue to do well when they transfer to Secondary School
- Develop positive attitudes to work which will help them later in life, whatever their choice of career may be in adult life
Children who are frequently absent are more likely to:
- Fall behind in their work
- Find it difficult to form lasting friendships
- Be unhappy in school and have a poor attitude to work
- Get involved in anti-social behaviour
What can you do to help?
- Ensure children attend school every day and arrive on time.
- Take family holidays during school holidays.
- Try to make medical or dental appointments before or after school.
- Inform the school of any absences by telephoning on the first day your child is absent and send a letter on your child’s return
Remember that Long Lee staff are here to support you with any problems that may affect your child’s/children’s regular attendance.
Every Minute Counts
Not only is attending school regularly important, ensuring your child arrives for school on time is also important.
Children should arrive at school in time for registration at 9.00am
If your child arrives after the register has been taken they will be marked ‘late’.
Children who regularly arrive late miss important parts of the curriculum that may not be covered again.
When making doctor, dentist or hospital appointments please try wherever possible to make these for after the end of the school day
Our Aims at Long Lee Primary
- Continue to improve Attendance to the pre Covid 19 levels
- Reduce PA (persistent absence - any child who's attendance is below 90%)
- Improve existing attendance systems / processes to support continued and sustained improvements
- To create an ethos in which good Attendance is the norm and every child aims for excellent Attendance
- To ensure Attendance and Punctuality is a key priority for school
- To develop a systematic approach to gathering and analysing relevant attendance data – proactively implementing targeted support programmes regarding school attendance
Understanding types of absence
Every ½ day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.
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 was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as what is acceptable and what is not.
Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:
A birthday
A shopping trip
Day trips
Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances
What should I do if my child is absent from school?
Contact the school office on the first morning before and notify us of the absence and provide a reason.
School will phone on Day 1 of an absence and do a home visit after 2 days.
Punctuality
It is very important that all children arrive on time. If your child arrives late, they will not be able to come into school via usual morning entrance doors but should instead come through the main school entrance. We will then be able to mark registers and ensure your child is marked for a school dinner.
Please note that if your children arrives at school later than 9:30, we are required to mark them as absent for that half day session.
If children are regularly late, a parent will be expected to attend a meeting to look at how punctuality can be improved.
Promoting Attendance and Support
At Long Lee Primary School we believe that working together with parents is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.
We have lots of high profile rewards and systems in school to promote good attendance and punctuality with the children.
All classes above 96% attendance that week get to roll the dice on our new Attendance Monopoly board where they can win prizes such as Juice and Biscuits; Dodgeball; DVD… and if they roll well; they can win a non-uniform day.
Certificates and prizes are given termly in recognition of good attendance and improved attendance.
Term Time Hoildays
From 1 September 2013, schools are no longer allowed to authorise any requests for children to be taken out of school for a holiday during term time.
Requests for leave can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, and a holiday would not be considered exceptional. Requests for leave must also be made to the school in advance, as the DfE have told schools that they cannot authorise any absences after they have been taken.
Parents may receive a penalty notice if their child is absent from school without permission.
We appreciate the challenges that some parents face when booking holidays, particularly during the school holidays. However, regular attendance at school is vital in helping children and young people to achieve their full potential and get the best possible start in life.
Bradford Council Attendance Notification
Absence due to unauthorised leave taken during term time is a significant issue for all Bradford schools. Children in Bradford are twice as likely to be absent due to unauthorised leave during term time then the average child in England, with absence due to unauthorised leave during term time representing the third highest reason for absence behind Illness and general unauthorised absence. In the 2021-2022 academic year, Bradford children missed almost 150,000 days of school due to unauthorised leave taken during term time.
Absence due to unauthorised leave during term time covers a variety of reasons for absence, including holidays during term time and travel to other countries to visit family and attend celebrations and events. Currently schools can request a penalty notice from Bradford Council for each child, and each parent, where unauthorised leave takes place. Despite this, absence due to unauthorised leave during term time continues to take place, with a significant number of families taking more than one period of absence during an academic year, or taking a period of leave of four weeks or more.
A decision has been made by Bradford Council to change their approach to situations where families take two or more periods of unauthorised leave in a 12-month period, or when a period of four or more weeks of leave is taken. In these instances, Bradford Council will utilise the option to start legal proceedings via the magistrates’ court, instead of issuing a penalty notice. This means that parents may be liable to receive a significantly higher fine (up to £2,500 per child, per parent) if found guilty, as well as receive a criminal record, which may be reportable to employers (for example, via a DBS Check). In rare circumstances, magistrates can consider a custodial sentence for up to 3 months. This change will come into force from 1st April 2023.
Attendance Rewards
We celebrate attendance every Friday in our Celebration assembly . Every class which has an average attendance of 96% or more can play Attendance Monopoly. Attendance Monopoly is our monopoly style board game – you will spot it on the wall in our hall.
Each class has their own monopoly piece which moves round the board,. Every week you have 96% or more your class gets to roll the dice and move around the board. There is one special difference about our board though – instead of houses the squares are all rewards everything from extra playtime and art activities to juice and biscuits or a non uniform day.