Lateness & Absence Procedure

Lateness

All parents are responsible for their child’s travel arrangements to school and to ensure their child arrives on time. Even pupils coming from some distance are therefore expected to be on time.

The school gates open at 8.20am, school starts at 8.30am and the school registers are taken at 8.40am.

School finishes at 3.20pm Monday to Thursday and at 1.40pm on Fridays.

• Pupils arriving after the door has closed at 8.40am will be considered as late.
• Pupils arriving after these times must report to the School Office so that their attendance can be recorded.
• Pupils arriving after 8.50am will be officially absent for the morning session. This will be considered an un-authorised absence unless a satisfactory reason is given, for example a medical appointment.
• Lateness is monitored.
• Action to address lateness will be taken in line with the school’s strategy to improve punctuality.

The school does not take responsibility for pupils on site prior to 8.20am or after 3.20pm unless attending an afterschool club.

Pupils must be picked up at the correct time. If a parent is late the child will be brought to the office and their names recorded and parents contacted. If, on a rare occasion when a parent is unavoidably late, they must phone the school to inform them

Monitoring Attendance

• Attendance is monitored regularly.
• Parents should contact the school before 9am to report a child’s absence.
• The school will attempt to contact families whose child is absent where no reason has previously been given.
• Attendance data will be collected to establish patterns of irregular attendance.

This will include children with incomplete weeks; Monday and Friday absences,          lateness, periods of extended absence, periods of unauthorised absence and all children with attendance below 90%.

This data will be discussed with the Local Authorities Attendance Support Team (previously known as Education Welfare Service) as part of regular meetings.