St Peter’s Primary School is committed to the continuous raising of achievement of all our pupils.  Regular attendance is critical if our pupils are to be successful and benefit from the opportunities presented to them. 

One of our basic principles is to celebrate success. Good attendance is fundamental to a successful and fulfilling school experience. We actively promote 100% attendance for all our pupils and we use a variety of weekly, termly and annual awards to promote good attendance and punctuality. We recognise that on occasion due to illness children may not be able to attend school and therefore on a daily, weekly and termly basis we aim to have class and whole school attendance of over 95% - we actively track this and encourage all staff and pupils to engage with this tracking process.  

This policy represents our commitment to expect 100% attendance from all our pupils, which is achieved by many children. It sets out our expectations and the strategies that the school will undertake to achieve this. One of our basic principles is to celebrate success, making school a welcoming place which children want to attend and families want to be a part of. This central theme of ‘belonging’ is key to good attendance at St Peter’s Primary. 

This policy is written in line with DFE guidelines, “working together to improve school attendance” September 2022 

In accordance with Department for Education (DfE) advice to schools, St Peter’s CE Primary School will: 

• Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence.  

• Ensure every child has access to full-time education.  

• Act early to address patterns of absence.  

 

The Governors, Headteacher and school staff will work in partnership with parents and carers to achieve excellent attendance at St Peter’s CE Primary School. The term ‘parent’ includes all natural parents, any person who has parental responsibility and any person who has day to day care of the child 

 

Please find below a link to our Attendance Policy.

 

Leave of absence

The school will only grant a pupil a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. In order to have requests for a leave of absence considered, the school will expect parents to contact the headteacher in writing using the absence request form, attached below, at least two weeks prior to the proposed start date of the leave of absence, providing the reason for the proposed absence and the dates during which the absence would be expected to occur.

Any requests for leave during term time will be considered on an individual basis and the pupil’s previous attendance record will be taken into account. Where the absence is granted, the headteacher will determine the length of time that the pupil can be away from school. The school does not grant leaves of absence for the purposes of family holidays.

Requests for leave will not be granted in the following circumstances:

• Immediately before and during statutory assessment periods

• When a pupil’s attendance record shows any unauthorised absence

• Where a pupil’s authorised absence record is already above 10 percent for any reason.

If term-time leave is not granted, taking a pupil out of school will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and may result in sanctions, such as a penalty notice. The school cannot grant leaves of absence retrospectively; therefore, any absences that were not approved by the school in advance will be marked as unauthorised.