Attendance and Punctuality is a Key Priority at Summerfield Primary School.

Education is important. Children should be at school, on time and ready to learn, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. 90% attendance sounds good to some people but this is ½ day missed every week! Over a school year this is 4 weeks – 100 lessons lost!

Regular attendance and punctuality is essential in the workplace too - children who are used to attending school on time, and on every occasion unless they are really  too unwell to attend, will be better prepared for the attendance expectations in the workplace. 

We know that  children are sometimes ill or anxious about attending school and that families can be dealing with challenges which affect regular school attendance. We want to try and help parents sort these out with us as soon as possible. We want you to talk to us and not to cover up children’s absences or to give in to pressure . This often makes things worse and can make your child think you don’t think school is important. 

At Summerfield Primary School we will do everything we can to support you with helping  your child to achieve full and regular attendance. We will strive to provide a welcoming, caring environment, in which each member of our community feels wanted and secure, helping them to  “find their remarkable”.

Why is regular attendance so important?

Learning: Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence seriously affects their learning. Any child’s absence can disrupt teaching routines and so may affect the learning of others in the same class. Research has shown that children perform significantly less well in exams and assessments if their attendance has been lower than average.

Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is a legal responsibility for a parent and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

Safeguarding: your child may be at risk of harm if they do not attend school regularly. Safeguarding the interests of each child is everyone’s responsibility and failing to attend school on a regular basis may be considered as a safeguarding issue that needs a formal referral to Social Care. 

Leave of Absence 

As stated above, leave of absence will only be granted by the Headteacher if there are exceptional circumstances  and Summerfield Primary school will ask the Local Authority to issue you with a Penalty Notice.

We will consider requests for “exceptional leave”  on a case by case basis  and will respond to you in writing with our decision. Our request for exceptional leave forms are available at Reception and we must have  4  weeks to consider and respond to your requests unless there is an emergency. If this occurs, please contact us to discuss first.