Attendance

At Nightingale we believe that positive behaviour and excellent attendance contribute to children’s achievement. The school has adopted the Local Authority Attendance Strategy which can be viewed on ‘Redbridge i ’. 

We aim to:

• Improve our attendance rate to 96.5% or above
• Promote children’s welfare and keep them safe
• Maintain parents’ and pupils’ awareness of the importance of regular attendance
• Give our pupils the best chance of succeeding whilst at school.

Excellent attendance is important because:

• There is a direct link between under-achievement and poor attendance
• Regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically
• Regular attenders find school routines and schoolwork easier to cope with
• Regular attenders are more likely to find learning  satisfying and to build strong friendships with their peers
• Regular attenders have an easier transfer to secondary school, having developed positive habits in attending school every day.

 

Creating a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s responsibility – parents/carers, pupils and staff have a part to play. 

Education Welfare Service

The School’s Education Welfare Officer visits the school every other week during the term time and checks the school’s attendance registers.  If any child is absent from the school on a regular basis, is frequently late, of has a number of unauthorised absences, the Education Welfare Officer may decide that an interview with the parents is necessary.

If your child is unwell….                                                                                                                    
Please telephone the school on the first day of absence if your child has a cold or other minor ailment. Please also let us know immediately if your child has a notifiable disease (e.g. measles or chicken pox).

When your child returns to school, please send a letter addressed to Mrs Brooks in the school office, giving the reason for absence.   Following guidelines from the Educational Welfare Officer, the school will need to see medical evidence for sickness absence of 3 days or more.  An absence for which no reason is given will be marked as unauthorised absence.

For appointments at Clinics, Hospitals etc., please inform the school by letter in advance and collect your child from the School Office at the appointed time. Please do you best to make appointments out of school time if possible.

Authorised and Unauthorised Absences

Only the school can authorise a child’s absence, not parents.  Absences, which are not valid, are known as unauthorised and in some cases a fine will be issued.

Leave during term time

It is not acceptable to take children out of school for birthdays, family holidays, to visit relatives abroad, family weddings or any other special events during term time and these absences will not be authorised.

Please complete the ‘Request for Leave of Absence’ form (link) to apply to the Head teacher to take your child out of school in exceptional circumstances.

 Valid reasons for authorised absences include: 

• Illness
• Religious observation (no more than 3 days)
• Emergency medical and dental appointments
• Family bereavement

Fines will be imposed for unauthorised absence and your child could lose their place at Nightingale Primary School.

Punctuality

The habit of good punctuality needs to be started from the earliest age including Nursery and Reception. Good time keeping is a vital life skill that will help children as they progress through their school life and out into the wider world. Poor punctuality is not acceptable, when pupils arrive late they disrupt lessons, they will miss some key learning opportunities and it can be embarrassing for them to enter the class late.