Attendance and Punctuality
* Please ensure you have read our school attendance policy.
Being in school matters - everyday
We want all the children attending Maple Cross JMI and Nursery School to achieve their full potential. To do that it’s really important that they attend school regularly, providing they are fit and healthy enough to do so. Missing out on just one lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school. We really want your child to enjoy being at school and for you to feel that school is a positive and enriching experience. So do talk to us if you have any concerns about attendance.
Reporting Absence
If your child is ill a phone call is required by 8.30 am on the first day of absence, followed with a call/text/email on the subsequent days. If your child is also off ill the following Monday, another voice call will be required. Full details can be found on our attendance policy.
Family holidays must not be taken within term time. School term dates are provided a year in advance and should be checked.
Requests for exceptional leave must be sent to the school office which include dates and reason for the leave.
Illness and attending school
Mostly it’s very clear to parents when a child isn’t fit to go to school. But sometimes it’s harder to make that call. If you’re not sure what to do for best, please call us. We have plenty of experience and information we can share with you. Children can attend school if they are taking medicines. However, we can only give children prescribed medication if a form has been filled in which is available from the office.
Advice from a medical professional is really important if your child has an infectious illness (like measles, rubella, chicken pox, mumps, vomiting, diarrhoea, or impetigo, for example). Check with your GP, or use the first link below to open or download a PDF file with advice about infection control and guidance on how long to keep children away from school or nursery if they have various illnesses or infections. Children with rashes should be considered infectious and assessed by their doctor.
NHS 111 can help if you have an urgent medical problem and you’re not sure what to do.
If a child is not in school and we don’t receive an explanation, then the absence will be treated as ‘unauthorised’. Even if a medical professional has advised you to keep your child at home, please let us know as soon as possible.
Staff mark the class register at the beginning of every morning and afternoon. The registers have to show whether an absence is authorised or not. We are obliged to provide figures concerning absence to the Department for Education on a regular basis, and we also work closely with the local authority’s Attendance Improvement Officer. In exceptional circumstances the local authority may issue a Fixed Penalty Notice or even prosecute parents for their child’s irregular attendance.
Please remember that any child who arrives more than ten minutes late in the morning will be recorded as having an unauthorised absence for the morning session. More importantly, a child who is late is missing learning. Every minute of learning matters.
Research suggests that just 16 days of absence over an academic year (92% attendance) can equal an approximate drop of 30% in attainment.
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Attendance during one school year
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Equivalent number of days absent
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Equivalent number of weeks absent
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Approximate equivalent number of lessons missed
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95%
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9
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2
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80+
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90%
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19
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4
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160+
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85%
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29
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6
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240+
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80%
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38
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8
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320+
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Punctuality
It is vital that children attend school on time every day, so they do not miss valuable learning time. Being 15 minutes late each day is equivalent to missing two weeks of school over an academic year. Being late can also be stressful for children and disrupt the learning of the rest of the class
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Minutes late each day
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Equivalent amount of school time missed
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5 minutes late
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3+ school days each year
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10 minutes late
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6+ school days each year
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15 minutes late
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10+ school days each year
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20 minutes late
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13+ school days each year
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30 minutes late
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20+ school days each year
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Children arriving at school later than 8:45am should arrive via the school office to be marked in the register. Parents are required to log their child in to school and record a reason for lateness. These reasons are shared with the attendance improvement team.
Children who are late must be escorted to the school office by an adult. Please do not drop latecomers off at the school gate to make their own way in.
