Attendance

A very warm welcome to Saltwood Primary School.

Education lays the vital foundations of a child’s life. Regular and punctual attendance at school is key to both academic and social development, which in turn will improve the life chances of children and young people and ensure that your child settles well, is happy at school and able to take advantage of all that Saltwood Primary has to offer.

We hope that by working together, your child’s journey with us is a happy and successful one.

Our Attendance Policy can be found in the policies area of our school website.

Our School Day

Our school day starts at 8:50am and ends at 3:20pm.

Our school gates and classroom doors are open from 8.40am.

Lateness

Pupils arriving after 8:50am must enter school by the main entrance and report to the School Office where the time and reason for lateness will be recorded.

The registers will close at 9:10am and 1:40pm. Pupils arriving after the register has closed will be marked as late after registration (code U) and will count as an unauthorised absence. Frequent lateness after the register has closed will be discussed with parents and could provide grounds for prosecution or a Penalty Notice.

It can be very distressing for children to go into class late on a regular basis and they are missing vital points of learning. It may only seem 5 minutes, but this can quickly add up.

Lost Minutes = Lost Learning!

Absence

It is the parents’ responsibility to contact the school on the first day (and each subsequent day) their child is absent by email or telephone before 9.30am. This is a safeguarding issue requirement so that all parties know that your child is safe. At Saltwood, we operate a first day calling system. If your child is unwell with a sickness bug or diarrhoea we would ask that they remain at home until they are clear of any symptoms for 48 hours.

Our SENCO is Ellie Geering and she is happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Please come and talk to us if you have any worries or questions.

Medical and dental appointments

We kindly request that, except in cases of emergency, any medical appointments are not arranged during school times. We may request to see evidence (letters/emails/text messages) of any medical appointments during the school day. Failure to provide such evidence could result in the absence being recorded as unauthorised.

It is expected that any child should be returned to school as soon as possible after the medical appointment.

Requesting a leave of absence

If you are needing to request an unavoidable leave of absence for your child, please contact the Headteacher at least two weeks before the start date of the requested absence. Absences will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances (see the Attendance Policy on our website for more details). We consider each request using various factors, including the child’s attendance data, the impact on the child’s learning and the R.U.S.S. approach (is the request Rare, Unavoidable, Short, Significant).

The Headteacher’s decision is final.

Persistent unauthorised absence (10% or more of the school year) may result in an AS1 referral to the Local Authority School Liaison Officer for consideration of prosecution. The school will follow procedures in the Attendance Policy prior to referral and parents will be notified in writing.

 Attendance and punctuality information;

Please click the link for attendance information