Attendance
Why good attendance matters
It is vital that your child is on time and in school every day. If your child is not in school we cannot teach them. If they are late they will miss the start of the lesson and could struggle to keep up with the rest of the children. Some parents / carers believe that being absent from school occasionally sometimes is ok but these days soon add up. Good attendance is vital if your child is to achieve and make good progress.
What is 'good attendance?'
We define good attendance as being at least 96%.
This is equal to just 7 days off school out of 190 in the year.
Timings of the day and what to do if my child is ill
The school day starts at 8:45am and ends at 3:15pm. Children are asked to be on the school premises from 8:40am.
If your child is ill, please telephone school office before 9:30am to report this. We may ask for medical evidence absence in order for it to be authorised. We encourage parents to bring their child to school if they have minor illnesses so that we can help you to decide if they are fit for school.
Coppice Primary Academy does not authorise any holidays during term time. Fixed penalty fines will be issued to those parents whose children accumulate more than 10 unauthorised sessions in each term.
Our attendance officer will write to all parents each term if a child’s attendance percentage is a concern. This is to make parents aware of our concern about their child’s low attendance and so they can work with the Academy to improve the attendance. Our first contact is always to understand the situation and offer support.
Punctuality
If your child is late they can have a bad start to the day. For example:
• They miss out on the beginning of the lesson. They may have gaps in learning and struggle to keep up
• They don’t have time to settle down and they miss the social time with
their friends
• It can be embarrassing for them.
If your child arrives after 8:45am they should enter through the front office door and the parent / carer must sign in to the office computer system and give a reason for the absence.
Registers close at 9:15am. Any child arriving after this time will show as having missed the session, in other words a half day absence on their record.
Working Together to Improve School Attendance
Here is a more detailed document covering our attendance procedures and how we work with families and the Local Authority to support good school attendance:
Our Strategy to Improve Attendance and Reduce Persistent Absence
strategy to imporve attendance and reduce persistent absence final.pdf
Attendance Letters for Families - September 2024
The following letter is from the Chief Executive of Focus Trust, Mrs. Rowland explaining the policy across Focus Trust:
03a attendance letter for families september 2024.pdf
The following letter is from school leaders, reminding parents about school procedures:
attendance letter 2024 jt ah.pdf