Bridge Road, West Stevenage, Herts, SG1 2NU
01438 216565
Attendance and Punctuality
Attendance
Regular attendance at school is very important and absence is closely monitored by the school and the Attendance Improvement Officer from Hertfordshire County Council. Late attendance and persistent absence is also monitored.
If your child is not going to be at school, please telephone us as early as possible to let us know.
Our answerphone is on 24 hours a day and will give you the choice of pressing ‘option 1 – absence’. This means you do not have to wait until school time to call us. It is important that you let us know before our deadline of 9.15am and please make sure that you leave your child’s name, class and reason for absence. If we have not been notified of an absence you will be sent an email or text to your mobile phone to clarify the reason. It is the parents responsibility to ensure all contact details are kept up-to-date.
If we are unable to get in touch with you we will call the other contact numbers you have provided on your contact record form. This is undertaken as part of our safeguarding duties. Please keep all changes to numbers up to date to ensure contact can be made in all circumstances.
Appointments
We would ask that whenever possible appointments are arranged outside of school hours.
If your child has an appointment during the school day please let the School Office know in advance and the Class Teacher where possible. If this appointment is in the morning, but your child will be in school for lunch please give the School Office notice and inform them of your child’s lunch option before 9.15 am so that they may inform the kitchen.
Punctuality
Please ensure that your child is at school in plenty of time each morning. The school playground is open from 8.30 am, classroom doors are open at 8.45am and the school starts promptly at 8.50am. Arriving on time is essential to ensure that children benefit fully from classroom learning and that other children’s learning is not disrupted.
If your child is late to school, they should be brought directly to the School Office where you should sign them in on the screen in the lobby. Any child who arrives at school after 9.00am will be marked as ‘late’. Any child who arrives after 9.15am will be noted as having an unauthorised absence for the whole of that morning.
Leave of Absence Requests
We ask that you do not take children out of school for family holidays or general appointments. Current legislation does not allow these to be authorised. We find that breaks from school are detrimental to children’s education and that they find it difficult to regain lost ground.
However, if you need to remove your child from school for any reason you will need to complete a ‘Leave of Absence Form’ available from the school office. and attached below. It must be completed and returned to the school prior to the proposed absence. The Headteacher will then consider whether regulations allow the absence to be authorised or not. Failure to do this will result in the absence being recorded as unauthorised and may be referred to the Attendance Improvement Officer and could incur a Fixed Penalty Notice fine.
