Attendance AND ABSENCES
Attendance Monitoring
Lawn Primary School is committed to raising standards and achievements in all aspects of your child’s education. We recognise that high levels of student attendance are closely linked to academic success. As a result, we set a minimum target of 96% attendance for all of our students.
By law, all children of compulsory school age must have appropriate full-time education and it is the parent’s legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school regularly. This means your child must attend every day that the school is open. If your child fails to do so, you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted.
Good attendance is a skill for life and attendance has an impact on a child’s whole school experience. As well as affecting your child’s academic potential, poor or irregular attendance can have an impact on your child’s friendships, self-esteem and confidence.
We monitor the attendance of every child in the school. Where we have concerns about a child's attendance, our Welfare Manager may ask to meet with you to see how we can support regular attendance, you may receive a letter home or be invited to an Attendance Meeting with the school and / or Kent County Attendance Officer.
90 % attendance sounds good, but means that your child misses:
- One half day each week
- Nearly four weeks every school year
- Over one school year in a school career
A child whose attendance falls below 80% will rarely achieve their potential.
The minimum acceptable attendance is 96%
Absence Due to Illness
Obviously attendance levels can be affected by illness, particularly colds and tummy bugs. We would therefore encourage all parents to send their children into school wherever possible. However, if they have been ill with sickness and/or diarrhoea, please keep them off school until they have been symptom free for a minimum of 48 hours to prevent the bug spreading throughout the school community as this has a significant, adverse effect on attendance levels of both children and staff.
When to keep your child at home and when to send them to school
We understand and appreciate that children can become ill and that it is not always easy to decide whether to send them into school or keep them at home, so to help you with this decision we have devised a useful reference guide.
RED - STAY AT HOME!
Sickness & Diarrhoea
48 hours must have elapsed before a child can return to school from the last episode
AMBER - SEEK ADVICE!
Headache, Feeling Sick, Tummy Ache
Children often feel unwell if they are anxious, so if in doubt contact the school office for advice
GREEN – COME TO SCHOOL!
Mild cough, cold, sore throat, feeling tired
It's fine to send your child to school or nursery with a minor cough or common cold if they are otherwise well and do not have a high temperature. We can administer Calpol, Nurofen or any prescribed medication at lunchtime if you have signed a form. We will always contact you if your child is unwell during the school day.
If your child is too ill to attend school, please contact the school office before 9.10am with full details of your child’s illness/symptoms. If we do not hear from you, we will ring you to find out why your child is not in school.
Reporting Your Child Absent
You should contact the school office on the first morning of absence and notify us of the absence and provide a reason. Messages can be left by phoning the school (01474 365303) and then pressing 1 to access the absence answerphone.
If we do not receive a notification on the morning of day one, the office will contact you and if the school does not get a response, the absence will be marked as unauthorised.
If after the second day we have not received a response from you to give us a reason for your child’s absence, we will make a home welfare visit.
Medical Appointments
We request that, where possible, routine medical and dentist appointments are arranged outside school hours as these appointments will affect your child’s percentage attendance.
We do understand that some appointments, such as hospital consultations, are not always possible to arrange outside of school hours. However, if your appointment time allows your child to come to school for registration and then leave, this will have a positive impact on their attendance figure.
Likewise if they are able to be back into school for afternoon registration this will also have a positive impact. Afternoon registers are taken at:
- 12.45pm for Reception and Years 1, 2 and 3
- 1.05pm for Years 3, 4, 5 and 6
Administering Medicines
If your child requires medication during school time, we can administer this for you. All medicines, including asthma pumps, must be brought in via the office to be signed in. Please complete a medicine form at the office. We understand that some medicines need to be stored in the fridge and we have one available for this purpose. Unless your child is too unwell to come to school, being on antibiotics is not a reason to be absent from school.
Absence Due to Holidays
Lawn Primary School will not authorise any term time holiday and therefore any holidays taken during term time will be recorded as unauthorised. Parents may receive a penalty notice if their child is absent from school without permission.
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. To do this please come into the school office to complete the necessary Leave in Term Time application.
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.
To view our Attendance Policy, visit our Policy Page
Thank you for your support in helping to raise our school attendance.
If you would like any support or advice on attendance or punctuality,
please speak to Mrs Bowles.
