Attendance

Attendance and Punctuality

Regular attendance at school is felt to be an essential feature of a good education and securing it is therefore a high priority for us as a school and for you as parents/carers.Children also tell us that they feel that regular school attendance makes them feel happier and they tell us that they want to be in school every day.  By failing to attend school regularly, pupils often start to question the value of the education provided for them and we must all work together to ensure that this doesn't happen. 

Regular attendance can only be successfully promoted when the whole school, teaching and non-teaching staff, governors, parents/carers and the community are willing to regularly reinforce the importance of school attendance and at George Street - we do! You will hear children talking about how important we feel school attendance is as we discuss this often! 

Magic Number

Our 'magic number' is a target of at least 93% for every child in our school.  

Punctuality

Being late for school can happen occasionally and we do understand that circumstances arise that makes us late. However when this becomes a regular occurrence, it starts to impact very significantly on the children who arrive late. They tell us that they feel embarrassed about walking in late to their class and sometimes they feel worried as they don't know what the other children are doing in the room. We also feel that being late for school negatively impacts on other children in the class as the class teacher's time is taken on settling the child who enters the room late. 

We would urge you to make sure your child arrives for school between 8:50 am and 9:05 am each day when the doors are then locked. Breakfast Club is also available from 8:30 am per day. 

Absences

If your child is ill, please ensure that you telephone the school office that morning to report the absence. 01495 756436. There is a dedicated message service for reporting absence. 

Education Welfare Service

Any child who has attendance below 90% will be discussed with the Education Welfare Officer within the Local Authority and a course of action decided on with the school. This could include receiving a home visit or having to attend a meeting in school. 

Holiday Requests

We strongly discourage parents and carers taking pupils on holiday during term time. If circumstances are extraordinary then please ask the office for a leave form.  Leave from school is at the discretion of the Headteacher. Where parents face work restrictions, a letter from an employer will be required.