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Attendance

School Attendance Matters

At Shirley Juniors we have worked hard to improve our attendance and are pleased to say that our overall attendance for 2018-19 was 97.2%

All children are expected to attend school EVERYDAY throughout the academic year in order to maximise their learning opportunities. We hope that everyone will join us in attempting to improve on this year by following the guidelines below;-

School opening times

School doors open at 8.45am and children should be in classes and ready for registration at 8.55am. After this time children must enter school via the school office to be signed in.

Children arriving after 9.20am will be marked as unauthorised absence for the morning session.

Celebrating Attendance

We reward good attendance with certificates and trophies in celebration assemblies. Each week the class with the highest attendance receives our attendance trophy. Children with 100% attendance will be celebrated half-termly at the assembly.

Illness

Parents must notify the school by telephone each day by 9:30am if a child will be absent from school due to illness.

Medical evidence of illness may be requested for children that are absent for more than 3 successive days.

Medicine can be given to children at school at the following times to coincide with their breaks;

10:40am / 12:00pm - 1:00pm

We would encourage parents to consider carefully if their child is actually well enough to attend school with medication.

We expect ALL appointments, except for hospital appointments, to be made outside of normal school hours.

Leave of absence requests

Parents have a legal duty to ensure regular and punctual attendance by their child at school.

Holidays should be taken during the school holiday period and there is no entitlement for any family holidays or leave of absence during term time. Requests for holiday will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Applications must be made at least 3 weeks in advance using the application for leave form available from the school office.

The Headteacher will consider each request on its merits but will usually only be agreed in exceptional circumstances.

No authorised absence will be given during Year 11 or KS1/KS2 SAT’s periods, this will include all siblings in the family. Schools within Jefferys Education Partnership will liaise with each other regarding this.

Managing Attendance

All the schools within the Jefferys Education Partnership have agreed template letters & protocols for managing attendance. 

On a half-termly basis or as required letters are sent out to the parents of those pupils falling below certain levels.  This approach is applied across the whole school regardless of the child's age.  A child does not become of compulsory school age until they turn 5, however once a child has been admitted to school they are filling a school place and are expected to attend every day possible.  Ofsted places a high level of importance on school attendance and hence so do we as a school.  The below protocol allows the school to ensure that they can evidence to Ofsted that we manage attendance effectively.

The schools within Jefferys Education Partnership have two agreed thresholds for distributions of letters to parents and guardians;

  • Attendance falls below 95% - Letter sent that makes parents aware that their child's attendance has fallen below this level. The child's registration certificate is included with this letter.  The letter clearly states that this is provided for information only.  The school sends this letter out at regular intervals throughout the year to ensure that any discrepancies in the attendance data of a child can be discussed at an early juncture and rectified prior to publication of the end of year academic pupil reports.
  • Attendance falls below 90% - When a child's attendance falls below 90% they are classified as a persistent absentee.  At this point it becomes necessary for the school to report on the child's absence to the Attendance Support Officer at the Jefferys Education Partnership.  The school sends this template letter to parents or guardians to make them aware that this will happen.  This letter also reminds parents or guardians of their legal duties regarding school attendance.

When the school has concerns of a serious nature a meeting with the Headteacher and the Attendance Officer will be arranged to discuss and to establish how we can support the family to improve attendance. If necessary the school will refer attendance concerns to the Attendance Support Officer at Jefferys Education Partnership.

Fixed Penalty Notices

Fixed Penalty Notices were introduced by Southampton Local Authority in September 2005 as an alternative to prosecution.

All students who have 10 sessions (i.e. 5 days) of unauthorised absence may be liable to receive a fixed penalty notice which incurs a monetary penalty per parent per child.

A COPY OF THE FULL ATTENDANCE POLICY FOR THE JEFFERYS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP IS AVAILABLE FROM SCHOOL OR ON THE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE.

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