Attendance
In order for the children to get the full benefit of their education, it is vital that they attend school regularly and arrive on time. We work with children, parents and carers to encourage good attendance and offer a range of services and rewards to help do this as outlined in our attendance policy. However, please do not send your child to school if they are too ill. If your child is absent from school, could you please inform us by telephone, email or ARBOR app as soon as possible. If we are not informed of an absence, it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and will appear on your child’s attendance register.
We will contact you if we have a concern about your child’s attendance.
We ask parents and carers to contact us straight away if you or your child has a concern about school that may affect attendance. Frequent absences will trigger the involvement of our Attendance Officer and possible fines.
From September 2024, the regulations regarding taking children out of school in term time changed. There is no longer an entitlement to take children out of school for holidays. Term-time holidays can impede your child’s progress. The Headteacher may authorise ‘leave of absence’ in term time for exceptional circumstances, and this leave of absence must be applied for in writing using a form that can be obtained from the school office. If children are taken out of school and the absence is unauthorised, then parents may be fined through application to the Local Authority – particularly if their attendance is falling below a certain percentage. The school’s target for attendance is 97%. We do not authorise any leave of absence in September or during Y6 SATs week in May.
Late Arrivals
The school gates open between 8.45 and 8.55am for Reception; the gates for Key Stage 1 open between 8:45 and 8:55am; for Key Stage 2, the gates open between 8:40 and 8:55am. Children should be in the school playground or year group entrance area when the doors open to signal the start of the school day. The school gates are closed by 8.55am – any child who arrives after this time will need to enter school at the main entrance on Rudston Road and report to the office giving the reason for lateness via the electronic sign in.
At Rudston, we have been working hard to improve attendance and time keeping at the school. There are a few key things that we wish to develop with all our families:
- It is essential that parents are on time bringing children to school and when collecting them at the end of the day. Class teachers will be asking for reasons for any lateness and persistent lateness will be further investigated by school or the Education Welfare Service.
- There has been a change of policy with regard to punctuality. The Local Authority is urging schools to issue penalty notices to families that are persistently late for school.
- Before this action, we would write to you informing you of your punctuality record then, if there is no improvement, a parents’ meeting will be arranged. Only if there is no improvement following this meeting would any type of fine or court procedure be used.
This is an area of school life that we can only improve with your support and co-operation.
Absence
If your child is absent you must:
- Contact us as soon as possible on the first day of absence
- Complete an ARBOR app notification, on the first day they return with an explanation of the absence;
If your child is absent we will:
- Telephone you on the first day of absence if we have not heard from you
- Contact you after three days absence if we have not heard from you
- Invite you in to discuss the situation with the Headteacher if absence persists
- Refer the matter to the Pupil Attendance & Education Welfare Officer.
Dental and Medical Appointments
When Mrs Currie reviews the registers, there are significant numbers of appointments and random days’ illness that affect our overall attendance, so we are asking parents to follow these guidelines:
- Please try not to make dental or GP appointments during the school day. We understand that this is difficult where hospital outpatient appointments have been made for you, but these do not take up the whole day and your child can attend school before/after the appointment
- Please bring your appointment card or letter to the school office. It will be looked at and verified
- If it is an emergency appointment, please bring evidence of that afterwards and then it will be authorised
- Please note, that if your child is absent at register time, even for an appointment, this will be recorded as an absence or late arrival.