Miles Coverdale Primary School

At Miles Coverdale we consider regular attendance to be crucial for children's learning, development and well-being.  Being in school gives children the best start in life, improves their opportunities and helps them to develop important social skills. 

We expect children to come to school every day unless the reason for absence is unavoidable.  We will not authorise holidays in term-time nor will we authorise absences at the start or end of term for early holidays/late returns.

The new laws that came into effect in August 2024 mean that parents can be fined for non-compliance with their duty to ensure their child comes to school regularly.  Download the Key Information document here.

Contact details for attendance matters

Good attendance is important because pupils:

• are more successful moving to secondary school, higher education, training and employment
• develop greater social skills and friendships
• are more focused on their learning and find it easier
• are in a safe environment learning and developing essential life skills.

Research shows a direct link between high attendance and doing well at school. All children have the right to an education. We encourage and expect 100% attendance for all pupils. 

We will:

• check pupils are in school regularly
• continue to make sure pupils and parents know the importance of coming to school regularly
• follow up and check the absence of persistent non-attenders by:-
  • phoning home on the first day of absence to check where absent children are
  • following up an explained absence by phone call and email, and meetings for persistent absentees
• aim for an attendance rate of at least 94%. Pupils who are under school age, in Reception, are treated in the same way as all other children;
• monitor school attendance data of individual and groups and target our support towards removing barriers to attendance for individuals and groups who need it most;
• discuss poor attendance with parents to understand any barriers the pupil or family might be facing;
• facilitate support for families to help remove identified barriers to attendance. This could include support through the local authority attendance team oraccess to early help service
• when all avenues of support have been exhausted and support has not worked or being engaged with, the Local Authority can enforce attendance through a statutory intervention or prosecution to protect a pupil's right to an education;
• share and discuss attendance data with the Governing Board on a termly basis.

Parents:

• by law, must ensure that their child attends school;
• should arrange dental and doctor’s appointments out of school hours or during school holidays, whenever possible;
• make sure that their child arrives on time between 8.45am and 9am, when classroom doors are open for ‘soft-start’;
  • or if they arrive after 9am, sign-in at the school office;
• should contact the school on the first day their child is away from school.

Pupils should arrive and be collected from school on time:

• registration is at 9am, for all children from Reception to Year 6.  Pupils can go straight to their classroom from 8.45am during ‘soft-start’ until 9am;
• registration closes at 9.10am, arrival after this time is an 'unauthorised absence' late arrival can cause children to feel anxious or upset;
• if a child is collected late, after 3.40pm, they join our After School Club.  We charge a fee for this childcare;
• we take the view there are no late children, only late parents;
• we contact parents of pupils who have patterns of lateness to talk about how to arrive and/or be collected on time.