Attendance

All you need to know about attendance

St Mark’s Vision

At St Mark’s CE Primary School, regular school attendance is recognised as key to good student outcomes. The links between regular attendance, reaching potential attainment and future life opportunities are well researched. For this reason the school will encourage good attendance and be robust in monitoring attendance and take action when attendance fails.

Educational Research has shown that regular attendance and good punctuality are crucial factors in pupils achieving their full potential. At St Mark’s CE Primary School we are committed to providing a full and efficient education to all and to encourage our students to strive for excellence. By getting your child to school on time, every day you help build your child’s future success.

Attendance Team

Miss A Stephens – Home liaison Lead

Mrs R Martin – Attendance Lead

Mr P Knight – Chair of Governor’s

Absences

If your child cannot attend school, parents are required to contact the school and leave a message on the school absence line by 8.45am. We require you to call every day of your child’s absence. If we do not receive a reason for your child’s absence then we will try and contact you to find out why your child is not in school. Should we be unable to contact you, we will ask the Purbeck Attendance Officer to carry out a home visit.

Wherever possible, we would ask that medical appointments be made outside of the school day, although we understand that this is not always possible. If your child does need to attend a medical appointment, i.e. dentist, doctors, hospital etc. you will be asked to provide evidence of this appointment. This can be in the form of a compliment slip from the surgery/other, giving your child’s name and date of appointment, bearing an official signature and stamp.

Holidays in Term Time

A reminder that we are unable to authorise holiday during term time.

Please ask at the office or down load an application for term time absence here   Term Time Absence request

Leave of absence applications are intended for families where there is an exceptional circumstance that requires a child to be away from school. If you do feel that you have an exceptional reason for requesting leave of absence, please complete a leave of absence form, available from the school office.

Holiday taken during term-time has an impact on your child’s learning and attainment. In line with Government latest advice, if children are taken out of school without the Headteacher’s authorisation, a penalty notice may be issued.

How do we monitor attendance?

Although we do not expect any parent/carer to bring their child to school unwell, we have a duty of care to monitor attendance. We are seeking your full support to ensure that your child attends school on time, every day. Regular attendance is not just a legal requirement but it is vital for pupils to maximise their learning and achieve their full potential.

How do we categorise attendance?

Group 1: No Concern – Green Group
The child attends for 97% – 100% of the time.

Group 2: Concern – Yellow Group
The child attends for 95% – 96.9% of the time.

Group 3: Risk of Underachievement – Amber Group
The child attends for 93% – 94.9% of the time.

Group 4: Severe Risk of Underachievement – Pink Group
The child attends for 90% – 92.9% of the time.

Group 5: Extreme Risk of Underachievement  –  Red Group
The child attends for 0% – 89.9% of the time.

Our new procedure means that you will receive a letter from us if your child’s attendance is below 95% to advise you that we will be closely monitoring the situation. Further communications will follow if the situation doesn’t improve, as we would ask you to attend a meeting with the Head of School to see how we can support you to improve your child’s attendance.

If your child’s attendance drops below 85% a referral is made to the Purbeck attendance team. From this point, further actions could include home visits by the Purbeck Support Officer, involvement with the Education Welfare Officer, referrals to Safeguarding and Social Services, Penalty Notices being issued and eventual prosecution.