Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their child has regular and punctual attendance. It is the headteacher’s responsibility to ensure that this happens and also to support families who are having difficulty. Cara Whitehead and Eleanor Langhorn are our Inclusion Leads looking after our Pastoral Care and are our Senior Attendance Champions. Cara’s school mobile number is 07877 029504 and her email contact is cwhitehead@wrfed.pmat.academy. Eleanor is available on 07768 617620 or by emailing elanghorn@wrfed.pmat.academy.
What to do if you are late
We ask that all children arrive at school, by 8.55am at the latest, ready to start the day at 9.00am. A member of staff will be at the school gate from 8.50am to greet our families, and you may leave your child under our supervision from this time. The bell will ring at 8.55am, ready for a 9.00am prompt registration.
If your child arrives after 9.00am, please enter via the main entrance. You will need to sign your child into school in the ‘Lates Register’. A ‘Late’ mark (Code L on the register) will be made in the register for any child arriving between 9.01am and 9.20am. Any child arriving after 9.20am, after the official registers have closed at this time, will be marked in the register as ‘Late’ (Code U for Unauthorised Absence) as per the guidance from the Local Authority and the DfE. The headteacher and Pastoral Support Worker review the registers on a regular basis and parents will be contacted by letter should lateness persist, as per DfE and Local Authority guidance.
What to do if your child is ill
If your child is ill, it is really important that you email or telephone the school office before 9.00am (ideally earlier and leave a message) on the morning of each day’s absence. The school has a rigorous process to ensure that no child is ‘missing in education’ and when absences are unaccounted for, school will telephone all numbers and email all contacts provided to try to ensure all absences are explained. If, by 9.40am, we have had no contact from the family, this will trigger our ‘Missing in Education’ procedure as a safeguarding concern – this involves informing the Local Authority and Social Care & Early Help Services.
Children who take time off school to attend medical appointments will be expected to provide evidence of the appointment card. If this cannot be provided, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. Please may we ask parents to make appointments before or after school or in the holidays wherever possible. This keeps disruptions to your child’s learning to a minimum.
Should your child have a recognised medical or allergy condition, they will not be excluded from attendance awards if they are absent or attending appointments in reference to this.
Attendance Targets
At our school, we encourage all pupils to aim for a minimum of 95% attendance, with an aspirational target of 97%. When children attend regularly, they get the absolute best out of school life—from hands-on classroom learning to all the exciting trips, sports, and extra activities that make primary school so memorable. The visual below highlights the direct impact of regular attendance on learning and progress.
Celebrating Great Attendance
We love celebrating good and improved attendance! We encourage and reward our pupils through regular incentives, such as inclusive class weekly rewards, termly rewards for whole school attendance, individual certificates and raffle tickets to enter our end of year reward, which is a chance to win a family ticket to a fun educational attraction. At the end of the last academic term, families across the federation won a day trip to Cannon Hall Farm!
We also have an incentive to recognise pupils who have significantly improved upon their attendance over the term and are awarded a chance to have a lucky dip and a raffle ticket into the draw.
Absence Requests
If you would like to take your child out of school for an exceptional reason, please complete an Application for Pupil Leave of Absence form which is available at the bottom of this article. Where possible, it should be completed 6 weeks before the first date of requested absence. You will receive a formal response from the Head of School, after considering the reasons for your request.
Winter Illnesses
As the weather gets colder, it is unavoidable that children and staff will pick up colds and winter vomiting bugs. To limit infections, please note that if your child experiences either vomiting or diarrhoea, to limit the spread of infection to others, they MUST NOT return to school until they have been clear for a full 48 hours from the last bout of vomiting or diarrhoea. We are not being fussy; this is strict legislation from the Local Health Authority and helps to stop the spread of infection. Thank you for complying with this rule at all times.
Children with a high temperature should stay at home until the temperature has returned to normal and they feel well enough to return to school. Thank you for complying with this guidance.