School Absences

If your child is absent from school due to illness it is important that you telephone school on ​0161 370 3626 on each morning of absences to inform school of their absence. On returning to school you must send a letter to your child's class teacher detailing the reasons and dates of absence. Failure to do this may result in your child receiving an unauthorised absence mark in the register.

We encourage parents to make non urgent medical and dental appointments for outside of school hours. If your child needs to attend an appointment during the school day, we request that you bring written evidence of the appointment to the main school reception when collecting your child for the appointment or when returning to school following the appointment.

Attendance

Why is Good School Attendance so Important?

At Aldwyn Primary School we are working closely as a school family to improve our attendance levels so that each child is given the opportunity to achieve their full potential. By law, all children of compulsory school age must receive a suitable full-time education. Once your child is registered at school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly. If your child fails to do so, you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted.

Good attendance is a skill for life and attendance has an impact on a child’s whole school experience. 

As well as affecting your child’s academic potential, poor or irregular attendance can have an impact on your child’s friendships, self-esteem and confidence.

The SLT and governors at Aldwyn have set the target of 97% attendance for the academic year 2019/2020.

We encourage and praise children who attend school regularly. Throughout the year there are many opportunities for children to be rewarded for good and significantly improved attendance.

Fantastic Attendance!

• The class with the best overall attendance will be rewarded with Benedict Bear in Monday assembly and he will remain with that class as their mascot for that week.
• Every child who achieves 97%+ attendance will be rewarded  termly.
• At the end of each half term the class achieving the school attendance target of 97% will be rewarded.

Persistent absentees

We monitor the attendance of every child in the school.Children whose attendance falls below 90% are considered to be persistent absentees. If your child's attendance falls below 90%, future absences will not be authorised without school being provided with medical evidence to support the absence. If your child has 10 unauthorised absences over a 12 week period you may be issued with a penalty warning notice or a penalty notice from Tameside MBC. An attendance agreement may be created for your child to look at ways to support you to improve their attendance.

A penalty warning notice will state that your child's attendance is being monitored and they must not have any further absence during a fixed time. If they do, this can trigger the penalty notice.

A penalty notice is a fine issued for unauthorised absences.

Holidays in term time

In line with current legislation, holidays and leave of absence during term time will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

Punctuality

Punctuality is also important in the education of your child and is monitored in school.  If your child has 3 or more incidents of lateness during a half term you will be contacted and offered any support that you might need to ensure that your child is arriving at school on time. The school doors open at 8.45am and the school day begins at 8.50am when the registers are taken. Children arriving after 8.55am will need to enter via the school main entrance and will be registered as a late arrival. Any arrivals after 9.25am will be marked absent/unauthorised in the morning register which will then affect your child’s overall attendance.