St Thomas a Becket Catholic Primary School

Throughout the year there are just 190 school days.

This means that there are already 175 days set aside for weekend, holidays, family visits and days out. We believe every school day counts towards a child’s opportunity of attaining a good education to support a happy and healthy future. Regular and punctual attendance is of paramount importance in ensuring that all children have full access to the curriculum. 

Valuable learning time is lost when children are absent or late. Missing just 3 days a term will drop attendance below 95%. Five days off school equates to 25 hours of lost learning and the notion of catching this up with extra work out of school is unrealistic.

From a child’s perspective, missing school means:

• Disconnecting with school friends.
• Missing out on vital learning and struggling to catch up.

Children should be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.

Children are sometimes reluctant to attend school.  Any problems with regular attendance are best sorted out between the school, parents and the child. The school carries out regular, termly attendance monitoring and will contact you, by letter or by offering an appointment, if attendance falls below an acceptable level.

We would encourage families experiencing problems getting their children to school to contact us at the earliest possible opportunity to develop a plan of action to improve attendance.

Full details of the school processes and procedures can be found in the Attendance Policy below alongside the Withdrawal from Learning Form which must be completed for every requested absence.

It should be noted that NO REQUEST (as per Government Guidelines) for holiday in term time will be authorised and taking unauthorised holiday may result in a Penalty Notice.

PLEASE SEE UPDATED INFORMATION BELOW:

• A limit of no more than 2 penalty notices will be issued to the same parent for the same pupil within a 3-year rolling period will apply from 19 August 2024.

• The first penalty notice issued to the parent for that pupil will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days reducing to £80 if paid within 21 days.

• Where it is deemed appropriate to issue a second penalty notice to the same parent for the same pupil within 3 years of the first notice, the second notice is charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.

• A third penalty notice will not be issued within a 3-year period. Therefore, in cases where the threshold is met for a third (or subsequent) times within those 3 years, a penalty notice cannot be issued, and alternative action will be taken instead. This will often include considering prosecution but may include other tools such as one of the other attendance legal interventions.

Thank you for your support with this.