Hawthorn Primary School

Welcome to our website

Part of:

Welcome to

Hawthorn Primary School

  1. Parents & Community
  2. Attendance

Attendance at Hawthorn Primary School

Regular school attendance and punctuality is an important part of giving your child the best possible start in life. 

Please be aware that children need to be at school for 8:35am to avoid a late mark

Talking to your child and their teachers could help solve any difficulties you may have in getting your child to go to school and there are other forms of support available if you still have problems. 

The law requires parents ensure their child receives a full-time education suitable to their needs. As a last resort, schools and the Local Authority (LA) have legal powers to deal with poor attendance.

 

Parents/Carers Legal Responsibility

If a child is of compulsory school age and is registered at school it is a legal requirement that they attend school regularly to allow the child to fulfil their full potential.

Children who have poor attendance are more likely to find learning in the classroom more challenging as they are missing out on key steps to learning. They often find friendship groups difficult, as they are not having the opportunity to develop relationships. It can increase anxiety as they feel they don’t know what is happening in school as things have moved on in their absence and everything feels different.

As a school, we want all of our children to achieve and we are constantly looking at ways of improving our systems for that to happen. One of the systems we have looked at is attendance.

 

What to do if your child is absent?

Children will have times when they unfortunately need to miss school, this could be due to illness but if we can work together to make sure they are in school when they are well and not having unecessary time off school this will support their learning and well-being.

If your child is genuinely unwell and unable to attend school, we ask that you could let us know the reason for your child’s absence as soon as possible with an indication of when they might return to school.

Please call 01302 535906 before 9am and leave a message on the answer machine, with your child’s name, class, and reason for absence on each day your child is ill.

If we have not heard from you by 9:30am then a first-day contact phone call will be made.

We must have a reason for every time a child is absent from school. If we have not been able to make contact with you, we may make a home visit, inform our EWO (Education Welfare Office) or inform the police or social services. Some of these measures may seem extreme but it is our duty to ensure the safeguarding of every child in our school community.

We recognise that last school year was challenging with COVID still impacting, an increase in other childhood illnesses e.g chickenpox.  Families rearranging holidays from lockdown has also impacted on this year’s attendance but moving into September we will focus on attendance as we are expecting the Local Authority to announce new guidance around this issue.

 

The table below shows the amount of lost learning a child may have by missing school.

Our school target is a minimum of 96% attendance