Attendance

Success in school is first and foremost about turning up! Children who come to school more always do better. Please see The School Day page for timings. Don't be late!

Being in school and having the best attendance possible underpins all the many benefits of school for your child, such as their learning, wellbeing and wider development. As a parent, you are legally responsible for making sure your child gets a suitable fulltime education. For some children, attending school every day will be harder than for others. This is why we are committed to working together with families to solve problems and support your child’s school attendance.

Classrooms are open from 8:30am and children are encouraged to come in as early as possible to get settled and begin learning. 

Doors close at 8:40am - this gives all children enough time to be in their classrooms and ready to learn by 8:45am when registers then close. 

Once the school doors are closed pupils will need to enter  via the office and will be marked late if they arrive after 8:45am. 

If a child arrives after 9:00am, the register is marked as an unauthorised absence with the minutes late recorded. This effects your child's attendance and also makes it harder for your child to understand the lesson which will already be underway.

It can effect a child’s sense of belonging, inclusion, sense of security and friendshipping  if a child is often absent  from school, or regularly late. Being in school everyday is settling and helps your child's, emotional, social and mental health as well as their academic growth.

National average school attendance is 96%. This means that  children, on average, are only off from school 3 days per term, or 9 days each year. Many children are never off school.

If you think you might struggle to drop your children at school on time have you considered our Breakfast Club?

First day calling and notification of absence: 

The school has in place a system of first day calling. This means that parents will be telephoned on the first day a pupil is absent with no explanation, to establish a reason for absence. 

Please try to arrange routine dentist appointments outside of school time, if at all possible.

If your child is going to be absent from school, please telephone the school office on 01473 251604 on the day, informing the reason for absence, rather than just stating your child is unwell.  Alternately you could send an email to attendance@clifflaneprimary.co.uk

When you have a child too ill to attend school, please don't be tempted to keep other family members off school at the same time unless they are also too ill for school.  

Sometimes you may be unsure if your child should stay at home because of illness. For example It's fine to send your child to school with a minor cough or common cold or if they have conjunctivitis. You can check on the NHS site to see what ailments are still acceptable for a child to attend school with. If a child has a cold sore that could be passed on, your child can attend but the teacher should be informed. Please send a message to admin@clifflaneprimary.co.uk

Every day matters in your child's education.  At Cliff Lane Primary School we like to award excellent attendance and improved attendance. If you are having any difficulties in getting your child on time to school each day we are ready to help work through solutions with you.

Requests for non-attendance: 

Term time holidays will be treated as unauthorised and will normally entail a fine for each parent, per child. This can therefore mean any savings you gain in booking a holiday in term time, could disappear.

Please collect a leave of absence form from the main office, giving where possible at least three weeks notice. Please note, you will be asked to supply evidence to support your request.

Educational Welfare Office (EWO) involvement:

Where there is an emerging pattern of a pupil's absence, the school will invite parents to a meeting to discuss the reasons for absences. Support may be offered or put in place in order to improve a pupil's attendance. If there continues to be unauthorised absences, the matter will be referred to the Education Welfare Officer (EWO). At Cliff Lane, referrals to the EWO service may occur after six continuous sessions of unauthorised absence (three school days) or where we have identified a set pattern of unauthorised absences totalling six sessions (for example, consistently missing school on a Friday for three weeks running).