Attendance

At St Michael’s we ‘achieve and grow together.’  Attending school every day will help develop the perseverance to succeed and achieve.

We have a target of 96% attendance for all children

You can help your child achieve this by:

• Ensuring they arrive at school on time;
• Trying to make hospital, doctor and dentist appointments outside school hours wherever possible.
• Not taking holidays during term time.
• 90% attendance sounds good – but that means 1 day off every fortnight: almost 4 weeks off every school year: over 1 school year in a child’s school career!
• Research shows that attendance of 85% or below will reduce GCSE results by at least one grade.

We aim to support families by:

• Encouraging good attendance and intervening promptly with unexplained absence:
• Rewarding good attendance and providing exciting and stimulating learning opportunities so children want to come to school.
• Working positively with parents in gathering and analysing attendance data regularly.
• Working positively with education welfare officers to support pupils.

Punctuality

Better late than never, but better never late!

Our school day begins at 8:45 am until 12.00 pm and 1.00 pm closes at 3.15 pm

If a child comes to school every day at 9:00am they have missed 75 minutes of school education in a week which would add up to 7.5 hours each half term.

IN ALL CASES OF ABSENCE parents should please:

• Only keep your child away from school if they are visibly ill.
• Telephone school: 01665 602850 on the first day of absence, as early as possible.
• Keep school informed if more than one day of absence is necessary.
• Avoid medical appointments in school time, but if absolutely necessary, please bring your child to school for the remainder of the day.
• Speak to the class teacher who will be able to provide you with work for your child, if appropriate.

Holidays

Wherever possible, school would like to encourage parents to take their children on a family holiday during the 13 weeks of school holidays each year. It is vital for children to be at school every day to maximise learning.

We understand the importance of families being together for their annual holiday – and the benefits this brings for the children.  We also understand the difficulties some families have in taking their family holiday out of term time and would encourage parents to discuss these issues with us.

Government guidelines state that Head teachers can only grant leave of absence in exceptional circumstances but not normally for family holidays. 

School will be unable to authorise leave of absence for family holidays during term time.

If you do take your children out of school, it is very important for families to fill in a leave of absence form so school knows where children are.