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At Monkhouse we believe all children will be ambitious, courageous, respectful, resilient and kind so that they fulfil their unique potential and become active members of the wider global community. Outstanding attendance is a key component in this vision.
We want to provide an ethos which encourages all our pupils to attend school every day and punctually. This is vital if we are to ensure they succeed in school and in their future lives. The whole school community has a responsibility for promoting excellent attendance: parents/carers, pupils and all school staff. We also aim to raise an awareness of the importance of attendance with our families and so to improve the level and profile of attendance.
Why is attendance at school important?
The importance of good attendance and punctuality cannot be overemphasised. Family life is very important, but education is vital to ensure children have the chance to achieve their potential in life, for their future. Children only get one education; every day missed by choice, is missed knowing there is a potential impact on their education and future.
Parents/carers should also ensure that their children arrive on time each day. Children arriving late to school can miss important instructions and they disrupt the work of the teacher and other pupils in the class. Children who are persistently late will be recorded Miss Young (Attendance manager).
Rewarding Good or Better Attendance
Monkhouse Primary School celebrates and rewards good attendance over 97%! For children who achieve 97% attendance at the end of every term, they will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher. This will start afresh every term. At the end of the year, there will be an even bigger prize draw for those who reach 97% across the whole school year. All children who reach these targets will also receive a certificate. Children who achieve 100% attendance will be rewarded each term.
Sickness Absence
If your child is absent through illness or for any other reason, parents/carers will have to report the absence before 8.45am by contacting the school office by leaving a message on the absence voicemail or message through the gateway app. Any absences not accounted for in this way must be identified as an unauthorised absence on your child’s record.
If your child is absent due to sickness and diarrhoea, please keep them off school for 48 hours from the time of their last episode. This is to prevent the spread of illness among other children and is in line with NHS guidelines. If you are unsure if it is suitable for your child to be in school during or after an infectious illness (e.g. chicken pox, slapped cheek), please call the school office who will be able to offer advice.
Leave of Absence
As a parent / carer, you can demonstrate your commitment to your child’s education by not allowing your child to miss school for anything other than an exceptional and unavoidable reason. Research suggests that children who are taken out of school may never catch up on the learning they have missed, which may ultimately affect exam and test results as well as pupil well being.
Parents are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure their child attends school regularly. There is no automatic right to take a child out of school during term time. Amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 make it clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Governors have agreed that no leave of absence for family holidays will be granted at Monkhouse Primary School as they do not constitute exceptional circumstances. If you do chose to take your child out of school for a holiday it will be classed as an unauthorised absence. We request that you complete our leave of absence form so that we know where your child is if they are absent from school in line with our statutory duties.
We will always hope that parents/carers will be an open and honest role model to our children and report absences to us appropriately. However, if we believe a child has been on holiday or has been absent without due cause, then we will not authorise the absence. The duty and responsibility will then fall to parents/carers to provide medical or other evidence, to show that the child has not been away on holiday or has been genuinely unwell.
If your absence request is for a sporting event or religious observance, authorisation may be granted by the Headteacher on submission of the leave of absence form.
Medical Appointment Absence
If your child has a medical appointment, in order to authorise the time needed to attend this appointment, you must share the relevant evidence with the school office which relates to this medical appointment date and time. This could be a text message or email from the medical team or a doctor or hospital letter. Without this information, the absence will be unauthorised.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE REQUEST FORM
If you would prefer to complete a Leave of Absence Request via online, please click here for the online version of the form.