Updated 10th January 2025 by Mrs Carvell

Welcome to our attendance page.

On this page you will find all the information you need about attendance at St John's

and you will also find the guidance for you if your child is ill.

At St John’s we are proud of our overall outcomes for attendance which is achieved by

working closely with you and by monitoring, evaluating and analysing attendance weekly,

half-termly, termly and annually.

We have high expectations as we recognise the importance of good attendance as the essential foundation to positive outcomes and benefits for all pupils which includes developing knowledge and skills, attainment, progress, wellbeing, building friendships and feeling included, increasing their confidence,

self-esteem and resilience, improving social skills and providing wider opportunities and responsibilities.

Good attendance is your statutory responsibility and the impact on your child cannot be underestimated not just for now but also for later life and the working world. It is key to your child doing well at school, providing them with the best opportunity to achieve their full potential and fulfil aspirations for the future.

We use rewards to encourage attendance including 'Attendance of the Month' - the class with the best overall attendance evey month receives a treat.

Children who achieve 100% attendance are celebrated at the end of the year by the whole school and receive a special certificate.

What if my child's attendance is below 95%?

If your child's attendance falls below 95% you will be contacted by the class teacher and/or in writing to bring this to your attention and to check that our records are correct. If this is the case, to ensure good attendance is achieved, we will be monitoring future attendance and we hope that positive improvement will be achieved quite easily over a short period of time.

Attendance below the government's threshold of 90% is considered persistent absence and therefore a cause for concern which we will be closely monitoring. If it is considerably lower than this or no immediate improvement is achieved, we may request a meeting with Mrs Carvell as this is a serious concern due to the detrimental impact this will inevitably have on your child. This meeting will be to discuss this further, set future targets and avoid further action having to be taken.

We do understand that there may be unique medical reasons beyond your control that may have had an impact on the attendance levels and these are always considered carefully when deciding the next steps.

All of this work with you is to ensure good attendance is successfully achieved by the end of each academic year.

Is my child too ill for school?

If so, what should I do?

To help you decide if your child is too ill for school there are a couple of links below which will send you to the NHS and Government websites giving you direct access to what we refer to support us when advising you. They are linked to the website to ensure we are always accessing the latest information.

If your child is feeling 'under the weather' and you feel they may just need some medication to help them get through the day, for example Calpol, we can administer medication during the day with written consent from a parent (available from the office) and we will contact you if your child needs to go home. Please contact Mrs Cooper to discuss this.

On the rare occassion your child is too unwell to be able to attend school, it is important that you call the office to let us know every day your child is absent. Our office is open to take phone calls from 8 a.m. every day. 

We really appreciate your call as this helps to avoid you being contacted by Mrs Cooper or a member of the office team for us to ensure your child is safe which is worrying for us all and can take a considerable amount of her time. 

What should I do if my child has an appointment?

We ask that, where possible, appointments are made outside of school hours although we appreciate this isn't always achievable or may be needed urgently.

If you need to collect your child during the day for an appointment, for example a medical appointment, please send your child to school with a note or contact the school office so that this information can be updated on our attendance system and coded correctly.

Please be aware that when collecting your child it may take us a few minutes to collect them from their class or potentially longer if it is during a break time so sharing this information in advance may make this process quicker.

What should I do if my child needs time off school for another reason?

Leave of absence for pupils in exceptional circumstances

Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child regularly attends school. There are some circumstances when you may need to request for your child to be excused from school. If this is the case you need to complete the ‘Exceptional Leave of Absence’ request form found in Appendix 1 of our policy.

Examples of exceptional leave of absence that may be granted include:

•    A music exam
•    A funeral
•    An event of religious importance
•   Children who have parents that serve in the armed forces may have leave of absence                        requests authorised to help ensure family time after a serving parent’s tour of duty.

There may be other reasons we can grant leave of absence, this list is intended to give an outline as to what we consider exceptional leave of absence. The child’s current attendance will be considered when considering a leave of absence to be exceptional.

In September 2013 the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 came into force. These regulations make it clear that Headteachers should not grant approval for any leave of absence during term-time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Extra information is available from the Department for Education. CLICK HERE.

Any requests should be on an official school absence request form and handed into the school office for consideration by Mr Averis prior to any holiday/leave arrangements taking place. This form can be collected from the school entrance or downloaded from our website. CLICK HERE

You can view our policy - Attendance and Leave of Absence - on the school website, CLICK HERE.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

You may be issued with a Penalty Notice should leave be taken which is not authorised.

If a request for absence is declined please be advised that if the leave is taken and unauthorised any request for legal action will be dealt with under the National Framework for penalty notices – August 2024

Messages to Parents

School Attendance Data

Whole School Annual Attendance Data:

We are pleased that we are consistently above Local Authority and National Attendance data.

Academic Year Overall Absence Data:

School Ranking (compared to all schools nationally):

No national c.omparison graphs are available from 2023/24 onwards

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

Attendance Policy

Guidance

Attendance and the law

The local authority have produced this useful leaflet to help clarify the legal responsibility that parents have in relation to sending children to school.