First Federation Trust
Attendance Policy
Full time attendance at school is crucial to children’s success and we aspire to encourage children to have 100% attendance.
Absences
- If your child is going to be absent, you must telephone the school before 9.00 am with an explanation of the absence and daily thereafter until your child is well enough to return.
Lateness
Children should be lining up outside their classroom door at 8.40 am. Any child who arrives after 8.45 am must instead go to the school office to have their name entered in the register – this is very important in case of a fire or other emergency.
Children who arrive after 8.45 am but before 9.00 am are marked as ‘late’, children arriving after 9.00 am are given an ‘unauthorised absence’ mark for the morning session.
Afternoon registration will close at 12.50pm for FS, year 1 and year 2 and 1.05 pm for year 3, 4 and 5.
Requests to Take an Absence During Term Time
You must complete an L5 form (available from the office) which will only be authorised for extenuating circumstances.
Absence request form (to be completed for all absences)
Escalation
1. If we do not hear from a parent by 9.00 am we will call you to find out the reason for the absence.
2. If a child is off school sick for over 5 consecutive days a letter/prescription/appointment card from the Doctors Practice must be provided to the office.
3. If attendance falls below 95% then you will be asked to discuss your child's attendance.
The office administrator checks all class registers at 9am on a daily basis to identify those pupils who are absent. Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent, we initiate the first day contact procedures.
If no message is left with the school office, we will telephone in turn each of the contacts on the list provided by the parents. If we are still unable to get confirmation as to why the child is not at school, we will proceed to a welfare check (this is a visit to the home address). This is normally carried out by a senior staff member from the school or the Attendance Improvement Officer (AIO). If we are still unable to confirm the child’s welfare, we will call 101 to report the child as missing. This is the school’s duty of care and safeguarding for your child.
Please keep us informed.