Attendance and timings of the School day
At Coton Green Primary School we are very proud of our high attendance record over the years. Our aim is to out-perform the national figure year on year.
Our overall target for this year is 96%.
Everyone at school works very hard at improving attendance as only when children attend school regularly do they take full advantage of the exciting curriculum we have and achieve all they are capable of.
We also celebrate good attendance with weekly class awards and termly individual attendance certificates.
Thank you to all the parents who support the school and their children’s education by ensuring they attend as much as possible.
School Day timings
The school day begins at 8.45am and finishes at:
3.15pm in Reception.
3:20pm in Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and Year 2)
3.25pm in Key Stage 2 (Year 3/4 and Year 5/6)
All gates open at 8.40am and we encourage you to be on the school playground, ready for the doors to open at 8.45am. Doors will close at 8.55am to allow registration and learning to begin promptly; therefore late arrivals will need to be signed in (by a parent/carer) at the main office. All gates will close at 8.55am to allow the school day to begin.
At the end of the school day, gates will open at approximately 3.00pm, once all children are back in class and the playgrounds are clear.
Expectations
We expect that all pupils will:
- attend school regularly
- attend school punctually
- attend school appropriately prepared for the day
We expect that all parents/carers who have day to day responsibility for the children will:
- encourage regular school attendance and be aware of their legal responsibilities
- ensure that the child/children in their care arrive at school punctually prepared for the school day
- ensure that they contact the school whenever the child/children is/are unable to attend school
- contact the school on the first day of the child’s absence and send a note on their return to school
- contact the school promptly whenever a problem occurs that may keep the child away from school.
We expect that our school staff will:
- keep regular and accurate records of attendance for all pupils, twice daily
- monitor every pupil’s attendance
- contact parents as soon as possible when a pupil fails to attend where no message has been received to explain the absence
- follow up all unexplained absences to obtain notes authorising the absence
- contact those families whose child’s attendance has dropped below 90% on a termly basis
- encourage good attendance
- provide a welcoming atmosphere for children; provide a safe learning environment; provide a sympathetic response to any pupil’s concerns
- make initial enquiries of parents/carers of pupils who are not attending regularly, express their concern and clarify the school’s and the Academy’s expectations with regard to regular school attendance
- refer irregular or unjustified patterns of attendance to the Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher
Leave in Term Time
The school holiday dates are published a year in advance and holidays in term time are not permitted. If a leave of absence in term time is required for exceptional circumstances, such as a death or serious illness in the immediate family a request for leave of absence form must be completed. The Head Teacher will then decide whether or not to authorise the absences by reference to criteria provided by the LA. Head Teachers, on behalf of the Governors, cannot authorise holiday leave in term time.
Please be aware that Staffordshire’s code has now changed.
The changes to the law are introduced through the Education (Penalty Notices)
(England) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 and will come into effect from the 19 August
2024.
In summary all parents will now be fined for absence in term time and these fines will increase over a three year period.
How will it work?
New two-penalty notice limit in a three-year period
- A first penalty notice will be issued for leave in term time. This has increased and will now be £160 per parent per child but can be reduced to £80 per parent per child if paid within 21 days.
The three-year rolling period starts for parents when the first penalty notice is issued to them after the 19 August 2024.
- If a second leave of absence is taken within this three year period, a second penalty notice will be issued and then this will be at a fixed rate of £160 per parent per child, with no reduction for early payment.
- A third penalty notice cannot be issued within the three-year period; therefore, the county council will deal with any further unauthorised leave through prosecution in the Magistrates Court. If the parent is found guilty, the potential fine is up to £1000.
National threshold for issuing penalty notices (Other unauthorised leave)
The new national threshold for issuing penalty notices has been set at 10 sessions (5 school days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. This means if your child is off school for an unauthorised reason for any 5 days in a 10 week period then a penalty notice will be issued.
However, if in an individual case the local authority believes a penalty notice would be appropriate, they retain the discretion to issue one before the threshold is met. For example – where parents are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking leave for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events.
We would strongly urge all parents to be aware of these Government changes and the implications for the introduction of significantly increased penalty fines if pupils are absent from school during term time for holidays or other unauthorised reasons from next term.
If you would like to read anything further around this, please follow the link to the new statutory guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65f1b048133c22b8eecd38f7/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance__applies_from_19_August_2024_.pdf
Did you know?
Absence disrupts the education of the individual pupil and the whole class. Children who do not attend school regularly can:
- Struggle to achieve well in exams
- Fall behind in class
- Find it difficult to maintain friendships
- Miss out on important and fun opportunities
Make everyday count
Regularly being absent from school can lead to a significant loss of learning opportunities, potentially putting your child at a disadvantage later in life.
