Late/Absence Procedures

If your child is absent from school, please notify the school office at the earliest opportunity by one of the following methods:

• Telephone the school office on 01462 623322 and either speak to a member of staff or leave a message on the answer machine
• Email - absences@stnicholas23.herts.sch.uk

Attendance

To best serve the children at Norton St. Nicholas CofE (VA) Primary School the Governing and Staff Body are committed to achieving excellent levels of teaching, learning, behaviour and attendance.

Attendance Matters:

• Ofsted, DfE, the Local Authority and our school regard 95% as the minimum satisfactory attendance. However, for the best chance of success this rate should be higher still;
• Most children should routinely have attendance rates of 97% or more. This is the equivalent of 6 days absence a year;
• If your child is absent for 5 days each term they would have missed ¼ of a school year by the time they leave Norton St. Nicholas;
• 90% attendance is like having a day off every two weeks;
• 90% of young people with absence rates below 85% fail to achieve five or more good grades of GCSE and around one third achieve no GCSEs at all.

Is my child too ill for school?

This helpful NHS website explains when children are well enough or too ill for school: Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Registration and Lateness

The school site is open to parents to drop off children directly to their classrooms from 8.45am.

Registers will be called as promptly as possible after 8.55am and again at the start of the afternoon. The morning registers remain open until 9.15am. Attendance after this time, unless there is a satisfactory explanation, is recorded as an unauthorised absence (late after registers close).

If lateness persists, the Headteacher will contact the parents to discuss the matter.

Procedures for following up absence

• If by 9.30am the school has not heard from a parent stating a reason why their child is absent, the school office will contact a parent for an explanation – First Day Response.
• The school office will pass on messages about absence to the class teacher.
• If a pupil returns to school after an absence without an explanation the parents will be contacted.
• If a pupil is absent for more than three consecutive days without an explanation, the Headteacher will telephone the parents.
• If a pupil is persistently absent the Headteacher will invite the parents to the school for a meeting.
• The County will provide an Attendance Improvement Officer to examine patterns in attendance and absence on a termly basis. He/she may also contact the parents, if the school’s initiated meetings or letters have had little impact.

Outcomes of unauthorised absence

At Norton St. Nicholas CofE (VA) Primary School we expect parents to work with us to address attendance problems. Therefore, when a child has recorded unauthorised absence the following will take place:
• All unauthorised absence will be monitored.
• The school will send a formal warning letter to the parent/carer of any child of compulsory school age with 10 school sessions (half day = 1 session) recorded as unauthorised absence (including unauthorised holidays).
• If unauthorised absence continues to be a problem and the pupil has at least 15 sessions (half day = 1 session) unauthorised absence in the current and/or previous term (including unauthorised holidays), the Head Teacher may ask the LA to issue a Penalty Notice. The amount payable is £60 (per parent) if paid within 21 days or £120 (per parent) if paid after 21 days but within 28 days of receipt of the notice. Separate notices are issued to each parent in respect of each child.