Ensuring that your child arrives in school every day, on time and ready to learn is the most important commitment that we ask of parents and carers.

We understand that children get unwell and may need to miss the occasional day off school. However, where children are consistently absent from school for a day or even a morning every week there is a proven negative effect on their achievement, their friendships and their overall wellbeing.

The Importance of Monitoring Attendance and Punctuality

Once a child is registered at a school, it is the parents’ legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school regularly and punctually. We want the children to have the best opportunities available to them in life and having poor attendance levels has a severe effect on pupils’ progress and achievement.

Children who do not attend school regularly also find it difficult to maintain friendships. The school as a responsibility to monitor pupils’ attendance and concerns will be passed to the Education Welfare Service. Our expected minimum level of attendance for pupil’s is 96%. We trust that all parents will support us in our efforts to improve attendance at Clehonger Primary School.

What you need to do if your child is going to be off school

Parents/Carers must telephone or email the school by 9:00am on the first day of their child’s absence to inform the reason for non-attendance. If we do not receive a message by 9:00am, we will telephone you. If we are unable to speak to you, we will send a text message asking you to contact us. If we don’t have a response, we may make a home visit.

Where a child's attendance falls consistently below 96.6 per cent we will request that their parent/carer comes in for a meeting to talk about the importance of good attendance. We will also seek to understand any ways in which the school is able to support families to ensure that children are in school every day and on time. Where the issue cannot be resolved at schools level and attendance does not improve, it may be necessary to involve the Local Authority, who have the power to take legal action as appropriate.

Lateness

Punctuality is extremely important as we want your child to have the best start to the day they can. Children that arrive late often feel anxious walking into the classroom. This also disrupts the learning of the whole class. Time in school is very limited and we need to ensure we use every learning opportunity available to us. It is your responsibility as a parent/carer to ensure your child is in school on time every morning.

Our gate opens at 8:40am and registration is at 8:50am. Please note that if your child arrives between 8:50am and 9:00am they will be marked as late and you will need to sign them in at the school office. If your child arrives after 9:00am, they will be marked as unauthorised late which will affect their attendance record.

Regular or persistent lateness will be discussed with parents as late arrivals can lead to a child missing a significant amount of learning time; a child who regularly arrives 15 minutes late for school will lose over an hour of learning time each week, equating to a week of lost learning time over the course of the school year. Late arrivals also disrupt the learning time for other pupils.

Persistent Absence

Any pupil with less than 90% attendance will be deemed as a ‘Persistent Absentee’ by the Education Authority. Under the Education Act 1996, Section 444 (1A), the court can fine each parent up to £2,500 per child, order payment of prosecution costs, impose a Parenting Order and/or sentence you to a period of imprisonment of up to 3 months. Being taken to court, could result in you having a criminal record. Please work with us to make sure you do not end up in this position.

Further Information

For more information about attendance and punctuality please read the following documents:

Please Find Our Attendance Policy Here: