St Bridget's Catholic Primary School

All schools in Warrington have their own attendance policies and are responsible for keeping accurate records of pupil attendance.  The Attendance policy can be found here.

Please note that in, accordance with Local Authority guidelines, all holiday absence is treated as unauthorised absence and will be recorded as such. Requests for leave can only be granted by schools if there are exceptional circumstances, and holidays are not considered exceptional.  Requests for leave must also be made to the school in advance, as the Department for Education has told schools that they cannot authorise any absences after they have been taken. 

Parents can support regular school attendance by:

• Making sure their child leaves for school early enough to arrive at school on time
• Supporting and encouraging their child by attending parent’s evenings and other events
• Contacting the school to discuss any concerns regarding their child’s attendance
• Working in partnership with the school to resolve any issues that are impacting on their child’s attendance
• Making any medical appointments outside of school hours whenever possible
• Not taking children out of school for holidays in term time or for other unnecessary reasons

Persistent Absence

Children whose attendance figure falls below 90% are regarded as having persistent absence, as classed by the Department for Education. In order to support in improving attendance, we take a proactive approach and will communicate concerns about poor attendance to parents and carers. At St.Bridget’s we use an escalating approach which includes letters, meetings in school and / or a referral to the Attendance Team at Warrington Borough Council.

Children who are too ill to come to school or may pass infection to others should not attend school for 48 hours from the last time they were sick. 

When children are absent from school we ask parents to inform the school office by 9.00am with the reason for absence. We will contact parents if we don’t hear from you.

Reporting a child's absence can be done in two ways:

• By ringing the school on 01925 811873 between 8am and 9am, and selecting option 1 (report a pupil absence)
• By emailing the school to report an absence on sch_stbridgets_primary@warrington.gov.uk

The school office monitors attendance and punctuality every day, should you have any concerns about your child’s attendance please speak to class teacher or Mrs Barker, she is available every morning on the school playground from 8.35am or telephone school for an appointment.

Planned absences for medical appointments, holidays, special family events etc must be requested prior to the absence (we ask for 2-weeks if possible) by completing the paper forms which are held in the school office. 

School Holiday Dates

The School Governing Body, under the guidance of the Local Authority, decide school holiday dates for our school. These are published for parents/carers at the start of every school year and in the summer term prior to the new school year. They are displayed on our school website and a paper copy can also be obtained from the school office.

Roles and Responsibilities of Governors, Headteacher and Other School Staff

The Governors will ensure that:

• school holiday dates for each academic year are agreed by the start of the summer term in the previous school year;
• a full consultation takes place if the main school session times are to be changed;
• any changes to the start or end of the school day are implemented at the start of a new school year;
• attendance targets are set each year;
• weekly levels of lesson time, excluding collective worship, registration and breaks meet recommended levels.

The Headteacher will ensure that:

• pupils are registered accurately and efficiently;
• parents/carers are contacted when reasons for absence are unknown or unauthorised;
• pupil attendance and punctuality are monitored regularly;
• a reward system for attendance and punctuality is implemented;
• school attendance statistics are reported to the Educational Welfare Officer and Governing Body;
• parents/carers are written to when attendance and/or punctuality is poor;
• where there are cases of persistent poor attendance and/or punctuality rates, these are referred to the LA Attendance Officr;
• parent/carers receive an attendance report with the Summer end of year reports.

Teaching staff will ensure that:

• they register children accurately and efficiently;
• they inform the headteacher of any children who are persistently late, have low attendance levels or have unexplained absence;
• they encourage children to attend school regularly and inform the headteacher if they become aware of a problem that may lead to absences.

Parents/carers will be expected to:

• ensure that their child(ren) attends school regularly;
• ensure that their child(ren) arrives at school on time and is picked up promptly at the end of the school day;
• inform school on the first day of non-attendance;
• avoid taking family holidays during term time;
• inform the school in advance of any planned absence.

Arrangements for monitoring and evaluation

The Governing Body will receive a termly attendance report from the headteacher including:

• the rate of attendance for the school, including rates for specific groups of pupils (e.g. SEN);
• comparison of attendance compared with the agreed target and previous year’s rates;
• additional background information relevant to the attendance rate in school.

The headteacher and the Governing Body will evaluate the data and decide what, if any, further action is required