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Attendance

Our mission at Headley Park is to ensure that every pupil leaves our school with the ability and desire to learn more, unlock their potential and make their mark in the world.

Good attendance and punctuality are essential if children are to succeed at school. Research shows that there is a direct link between good attendance and academic progress and achievement. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that children are in school every day in order to maximise their learning.

Promoting School Attendance

At Headley Park Primary School, we promote the importance of good school attendance by:

  • Providing great experiences, opportunities and teaching for children in school
  • Celebrating attendance in assemblies and fortnightly newsletters
  • Discussing attendance with children and families who may need support
  • Discussing attendance at parent consultation meetings throughout the year

The Attendance Team

Everyone is responsible for attendance at Headley Park. All staff play a role in ensuring our pupils achieve great attendance levels. 

The attendance leader (Alex Gingell) and attendance administrator (Sally Shackell) meet every week to review all children's attendance percentages. 

In cases where attendance falls below the school’s expectations and continues to fall week by week,
there will be a stepped response taken. Individual pupils and cases will be discussed by the attendance team and the stepped response may be adapted to suit the needs of each individual case. The steps are:

  1. A supportive phone call or playground check in from the class teacher (to talk about
    reasons for absences and offer any support needed)
  2. A supportive phone call from the phase leader (to offer support and to remind parents on
    the number of days that have been missed and the impact on learning)
  3. An email from the phase leader (to inform parents that attendance is now being monitored)
  4. An email from the attendance leader (to invite parents in for a meeting to set an action plan to help improve attendance)
  5. A meeting with the headteacher (to discuss reasons why the aims set in the action plan are not being met)

Attendance Percentages

In order to safeguard the children in our school, we have a duty of care to follow up on any unknown absences. 

Attendance percentages can be misleading. 90% attendance may seem like a good level of attendance. However, the reality is that 90% attendance means that your child will miss half a day of school each week or 19.5 days of school during the school year. That is nearly four school weeks. The table below shows the amount of lost learning a child may have missed over a year and over a whole school career by missing school.

Absence from School

In order to safeguard the children in our school, we have a duty of care to follow up on any unknown absences. 

If your child is not going to be in school please call the office on 0117 903 1511 to report their absence. Please do this before 8.30am on the first day of the absence.

If we have not heard from parents, the processes we may take are clarified below:

This procedure is to ensure that we know where your child is and that you are all safe. Similarly, if your child is absent with illness for a prolonged period, we may make a home visit as part of our duty of care to your child.

Sickness Absence

Of course, there may be times when children are sick and unable to attend school. This NHS website provides really useful information about when a child can come into school, when they should be kept at home and when they can return after an illness. For example, children can come to school with a minor cough or cold but should not come into school if they have a high temperature (38C or above). Cases of scarlet fever should be treated with antibiotics and children can return to school 24 hours after starting their course of antibiotics.

Holiday Requests

All requests for term time absence should be made using the request form (link below) and in advance.

Term time holidays will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. Unauthorised absences of 8 or more sessions could result in you receiving a penalty notice from the council in relation to the absence. More information can be found on this below.

Working with You

We can only achieve great school attendance (and therefore great learning outcomes!) by working together. You can find more information about attendance below and you can always contact the attendance team via the school office if you have questions.