We believe that good attendance and punctuality give our children the best opportunity for success both academically and personally thus helping towards developing their skills for life. All children deserve to be able to make the most of the opportunities available to them at St Katharines.
- If your child is unwell we ask that you call the school office on the first day of the illness to explain your child’s absence. If you know that the absence is likely to be for a couple of days (48 hours for a sickness bug) please let us know during the course of this telephone call /message.
- If you are not certain when your child is returning to school we would expect you to keep us updated on a daily basis, before the beginning of each school day.
- If we do not receive notification about your child’s absence we will call you, as soon as we are able, to enquire as to why your child is not in school. This is in line with recommended safeguarding procedures.
- If you are requesting that your child have time away from school for reasons not related to illness, please request a form from the school office.
- Medical or other appointments in school time should be avoided if at all possible but if not please notify us by email or in writing and be prepared to provide evidence of an appointment if required. A half day is considered sufficient for most appointments.
- Please note that by law Headteachers are no longer permitted to grant leave of absence except in exceptional circumstances such as a family member funeral.
As part of our monitoring of attendance we conduct regular attendance audits. If we are concerned about your child’s attendance and the percentage drops to 90% or below we will contact you for an informal discussion about this and explore the reasons that are preventing your child from attending well. There are occasions when we will seek that support of the EWO (education welfare officer) if we are unable to resolve poor attendance and where we are concerned that poor attendance is a barrier to good educational outcomes.