Attendance

The Meads Primary School is committed to promoting excellent levels of attendance and punctuality, enabling our pupils to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Good attendance helps the children in our school community to maximise their learning. We believe the foundation of securing good attendance is that our school is a calm, orderly, safe, and supportive environment where our pupils will want to be and are keen and ready to learn.

As a parent/carer you have a statutory duty to ensure that your child attends school regularly.

Every Day Counts

The Government regards 95% as the minimum satisfactory attendance for a school pupil, however, we believe a minimum attendance figure of 96% is achievable. Pupils cannot achieve to their full potential if they do not regularly attend school. We want every child to achieve their full potential and we know that parents share this goal. There is a clear link between good attendance and educational achievement. If your child is not in school on time they will be missing out on many important parts of their education.

It is the school’s policy to notify parents of their child’s attendance and/or lateness, should either fall below 96%. Letters are issued to parents periodically through the year to alert them to issues with attendance and opportunities are offered to meet with the Attendance Officer and/or Family Workers to find solutions to improving attendance and/or punctuality.

Absence Reporting Procedures

Our preferred method for reporting your child absent is via Studybugs, where the system will send reminders automatically for updates. However, you can also contact the school on 01582 490905 and inform the office staff or leave a message, if before 8am. Please provide as much detail as possible.

Parental illness is NOT an excuse for children not attending school. Children must attend school every day unless they are too ill to come in.

Medical Appointments

We would ask that you avoid making medical or dental appointments during the school day wherever possible, unless it is an emergency. If you have a hospital appointment for your child during school time, please notify the school office in advance. Evidence of the appointment should be provided to the school office so that the absence can be recorded appropriately.

Home Visits

If you do not inform school when your child is absent and we cannot make contact, our Family Worker may visit your home to ask why your child is not in. If you are not present, you will be left a letter asking you to contact the school. It is very important that you contact school and inform us why your child is absent as no contact may mean a referral is made to Children’s Services.

Leave of Absence from School during Term time

In accordance with Government regulations, the school is unable to authorise any holidays during term time unless they are for exceptional circumstances. If an unauthorised holiday is taken, the matter will be passed to the Local Authority for consideration for a Fixed Penalty Notice to be issued. A Penalty Notice means issuing each parent (for each child) a fine for £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days (for the first offence). Please note. There is now a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England, of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. The 10 sessions of absence do not have to be consecutive.

Family emergencies need careful consideration. It is not always in the best interests of the pupil to miss school for family emergencies that are being dealt with by adult family members. School friendships and relationships can provide pupils with stability and care during difficult times. The routine of school can provide a safe and familiar background to life during times of upheaval.

Lateness

All children who are late to school, after 8.50am, MUST be accompanied to the school office by an adult so that they can sign in the child with an explanation for their lateness provided on the system. As you may be aware, the law treats some persistent lateness in the same way as irregular attendance and parents may be prosecuted by the local authority if late arrival is not resolved.

Poor punctuality can lead to your child…

feeling embarrassed in front of their friends
missing the beginning of vital lessons
missing important instructions for the rest of the school day
learning bad habits which could affect their employability in the future

If your child arrives at school after 9.05am, your child will be given an Unauthorised Absence.

Late Collection

In the event that the parent/carer is running late or has made alternative collection arrangements with a friend or relative, they should ring the school to advise us of those changes so that both the teacher and child are aware.

If it appears that there have been no alternative arrangements made for the collection of a child by the parent/carer, the school staff will take the following action:

Messages are checked to see if there are any changes to the end of day arrangements
Parents/carers are contacted at home or work
If this is unsuccessful we will telephone other emergency contacts as listed on SIMs

Please note. The school has a statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils. In the case of a pupil not being collected, where no contact has been made by the parents or the school is unable to make contact with the parents or emergency contacts within 45 minutes of the end of the day, the school will ring Luton’s Social Care team to discuss the situation and ask for advice. This will allow the Social Care Team to begin to plan for the possibility that they may need to make arrangements for the alternative care of the child.

REMEMBER:

The School doors open in the morning at 8.40am
Registers are taken at 8.50am, arrival after this means that your child is late
The school day ends at 3.30pm
Please keep your contact details, and those of your emergency contacts, up to date

To report your child's absence please use the button below which will take you to the Studybugs website.

Please click here to see the Attendance Policy.