Attendance and Absence

At Poppleton Road Primary School, excellent attendance and punctuality is our aim for every child. We believe that every day counts!  We set an attendance target of 98% as the minimum that we expect for all children.

Evidence shows that those children who attend school regularly make better progress academically and socially. To help a child achieve full attendance, parents and carers play a critical role in helping us promote good attitudes towards attendance.

Together, it is important we ensure that children are present at every opportunity, arriving on time, and not being taken out of the school without authorisation. A child’s attendance is monitored closely, and we will follow up unexplained absences with parents or carers.

Where a child’s attendance record reaches a concerning level, we will contact the child’s parents or carers to discuss ways in which we can support all parties to help improve the child’s attendance.

Attendance Support Team
Our Attendance Team is made up of  Mrs Dawson, Mrs Gibson and Mrs Scott who lead on attendance across the school. They work closely with children and families to help every pupil enjoy coming to school and feel a strong sense of belonging.

The team offers early support, guidance and practical help, working in partnership with families to create clear and supportive attendance action plans where needed. Their focus is on understanding each child’s needs, removing barriers to attendance and ensuring every child feels safe, valued and ready to learn.

Reporting Absence

If a child is too ill to attend School, it is important that the child’s parents or carers contact us as soon as possible by telephone on 01904 806522

We ask you contact us each day that your child is absent.

If your child has an appointment

We ask that a child’s routine medical and other appointments are made out of school time, where possible.

We understand that this is not always possible though and we ask that we are notified in advance. This can be done by telephone, email or a note provided from home or appointment letter/ card to confirm the appointment. Please fill in a Request of Leave form from the office or from the link below. 

Where possible, the child should attend school before the appointment and return to lessons afterwards.

Leave of absence ( including term time holidays)

 Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

There is a common misconception that any child is allowed to take 10 days’ holiday per year. This is not true and we strongly urge parents or carers to avoid taking a child out of school for family holidays as this will disrupt their education.

Please note that absence will not be authorised for reasons such as shopping for uniform, birthdays, day trips, weekends away etc.

Only exceptional circumstances warrant an authorised leave of absence.

Requests should be made in writing to the Mrs Dawson well in advance by parents or carers.

Requests for absence for reasons such as compassionate leave, special family events, sporting or musical competitions, etc. should be made in the same way.

All requests are considered individually, taking into account the circumstances of the request. Other factors will be taken into account, such as:

  • the time of year the child will be absent
  • the attendance record of the child
  • the number of previous requests for leave of absence
  • the child’s ability to catch up

We will notify parents of our decision by writing.

Where a parental request has been refused, and parents continue to take their child out of school, this absence will be recorded as unauthorised.

Calls to parents/carers

We take our safeguarding responsibility seriously and calls are made daily to the contact numbers of a child’s parents or carers if the child is absent, and we have received no reason for absence.

We make calls on a daily basis, even where a child has been absent due to illness on previous days. We cannot assume that a child is still ill if we have not been notified and we would not wish to put a child at risk by failing to contact their parents or carers.

Welfare Checks

So that we can support children and families, school will carry out a welfare call check on the third consecutive day of absence. This is so we can support children with their return to school and plan for provision if needed.

School will also complete a welfare check in with children when they return to school to discuss any concerns or questions that they.

Fast Track to Attendance

Where a child’s attendance continues to fall despite initial contact with the child’s parents or carers and the use of appropriate strategies to help improve attendance, we may consider the use of the Fast Track to Attendance process.

The Fast Track Process is a positive measure to support a child’s parents or carers to fulfil their legal responsibility to ensure the regular attendance of their child.

A Fast Track Panel meeting will be held and the parents or carers and the child (if appropriate) will be invited to attend.

An action plan will be drawn up at this meeting and the parents or carers will be sent a letter explaining the outcome of the meeting and possible consequences.

Following a monitoring period a review will be held and if insufficient improvement is made, we will make a decision on the next steps. This could include the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice, referral to the Magistrates Court for prosecution or, in some cases, the Fast Track process may be extended for a further period of time.

Attendance Policy

Medical leave form

Attendance Team: Ellie Dawson ( Headteacher), Hannah Gibson (Deputy headteacher)  and Zoe Scott ( Children and Families worker)

01904 806522

office@ poppleton.pmat.academy