Every Lesson Counts

To do this and for children to make excellent progress we expect children to attend school every day. We expect all parents to support our attendance policy and ensure your children attend school every day (unless of course they are sick).

Holidays during term time

Unfortunately, a small number of our parents still take their children out of school for holidays during term time, this absence is not authorised and these children fall behind and miss valuable learning.

From 1 September 2013 new DfE regulations came into force regarding leave of absence for children from school. The current law does not give any entitlement to parents to take their child on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must be in exceptional circumstances and the

Headteacher must be satisfied that the circumstances warrant the granting of leave. The School’s Attendance Policy is available to download on our website. We expect parents, who accept a place at Manor Way to not take their child out during term time for extended leave or family holidays.

Attendance

To encourage high levels of attendance, certificates are awarded to children at the end of the Autumn, Spring and Summer term for 100% attendance.

There is strong statistical evidence to show that students who have excellent attendance are more successful in school and achieve to a significantly higher standard.

We aim for pupils to achieve an attendance figure of above 97%.

From September 2015 the Department for Education announced that the threshold for persistent absence changed from 85% to 90%. This means that pupils with an attendance less than 90% run the risk of being referred to the Education Investigation Service.

As a school we realise that there are occasions when young people cannot attend school because they are ill, injured, have suffered a close family bereavement or something of a similar nature. We are also aware that there have been a number of viruses and sickness bugs recently. At these times we fully understand their absence and would always endeavour to be completely supportive.

However, there are occasions when young people are absent with minor complaints when they perhaps could be in school, learning. It is on these occasions when we ask for your support in getting your son or daughter into school to ensure they have the greatest chance of achieving to their full potential. We will of course support you fully with this.

Sickness & Illness

If your child is unable to attend school due to illness please phone or e-mail the school office before 9.15am to let us know.

If we have not heard from you we will start to phone your contact list. If we can not contact you we will need to do a home visit to ensure that you and your child are safe.

If your child has sickness or diarrhoea, we ask that he/she does not return to school for 48 hours as this type of illness can be very infectious.

Punctuality

The school doors open at 8.45am for children to hang their coats up and settle on the carpet. The register is taken at 8.50am, we ask that children arrive promptly to ensure a positive start to their learning. The playground door from September will shut at 9.50am.

Please ensure your child is not late for school. Children who arrive late after the gates are closed are asked to report to the school office on arrival with their parents, to speak to Miss Moretto and organise lunch arrangements. Late attendance is discussed at Parents’ Evening and recorded on the end of term and end of year report to parents.

Times of the school day

Children should not arrive unaccompanied before 8.30am when the school gates are unlocked. All children should enter the school at 8.45am when the doors open. Registrations and learning starts at 8.50am. The school gates are locked at 8.55am.

At the end of the school day children are collected from the KS1 playground. Staff will only hand children over to parents and carers. Should another person need to collect them, parents and carers must contact the school office in advance, with the person’s name and a password.