Attendance at St John’s Primary School

St John’s School encourages good attendance as a top priority.  By improving our attendance rates, we will improve the standards that our children achieve and provide them with better chances for life, however we can only achieve this with your full support.

Attendance is tracked by the school and monitored every half term.  If a child has an attendance level of below 90% this means they will have missed an average of one day a fortnight in school.   Over a school year this will represent four weeks of absence.

If your child’s absence drops below 95% you will receive a letter informing you and you may be asked to provide medical proof of your child’s illnesses.  If your child’s attendance drops below 90%, illness absences must be supported with evidence such as a GP’s appointment card or prescription, or a hospital letter.  Where absences are not supported by such evidence, your child’s absence will be recorded as “unauthorised” and this has the potential to impact on your child’s overall absence figure and could ultimately result in legal action.

The government guidance regarding school attendance states that all children are now expected to attend school every day.

General Absence:  

Please contact the school on 01305 785711 and leave a message on the 24-hour absence line or email office@stjohnswey.dsat.org.uk before 9.30am stating the exact reason for absence e.g.: cold/cough, sickness etc., please do not state ‘” unwell” or similar.  If the reason given is vague, the office team may call you to clarify.

Attendance—Punctuality:

Please can we remind parents/carers that the doors open for KS2 (Year 3, 4, 5 & 6) children at 8.30am and KS1 (Reception, Year 1 & 2) children at 8.45am.  The school day will start promptly at 8.45am and your child will be recorded as late if they arrive after this time. 

Research has shown that there is a close link between attendance at school and a child’s achievement.  Being late adds up to a loss of learning.  All time out of school affects learning and achievement for both primary and secondary pupils. Please make sure your child arrives at school on time.

Attendance Awards:

At St John's, each child's attendance is monitored every half term.  All children with 100% attendance are entered into the Gold prize draw.  All children with 97-99% attendance are entered into the Silver prize draw.  All children with 96% attendance are entered into the Bronze prize draw.  There will be 1 lucky winner in each group as a thank you and well done for great attendance.  As well as the half termly awards, there is also whole term awards!  All children with attendance of 96-100% for the whole term will receive a Bronze, Silver and Gold Attendance Certificate and a small reward as a thank you and well done for fantastic attendance.

To see our Attendance Manager (pupils) Policy please click here