Attendance - St Mary's and St John's CE School

Attendance

Fft attendance 2023 24 award

At SMSJ we pride ourselves on our excellent attendance and punctuality and our students look forward to attending school and arrive on time every day.  We intend to regularly exceed 96% as an all-through school which will place us in the top percentage of schools nationally.

Our aim for all pupils, is to provide a high quality education in a safe, caring and disciplined environment in which everyone can excel and enjoy learning. We are proud that our pupils understand these values and responsibilities.   

Pupils’ attendance and punctuality is recorded daily: excellence will be rewarded and concerns pursued.  We expect a telephone call on the first day of absence.  Our staff will contact you where children are absent from school.  Please note that we require a written explanation on your child’s return if the absence was unplanned..

Research has shown that regular attendance and good punctuality play a huge part in students achieving their full potential at school.  The table below shows the national expectations of attendance:

Above national expectations

National expectation

Below national expectations

Well below national expectations

Persistent absence

95.7% and above 94.9 – 95.6% 94 – 94.8% 90 -93.9% Below 90%
         

Many parents are surprised how quickly days off can accumulate:

  • 94% = 12 days off a year (average 4 days a term)
  • 90% = 19 days off a year (average 6 days a term)

Every lesson in school matters and children who have time off find it difficult to catch up.

We wish to work in partnership with parents and carers to ensure that your child attends school every day and on time. We have to report our attendance data to Barnet Local Authority who we work with to ensure all our pupils come to school regularly and on time.

Request to authorise absence from school due to exceptional circumstances

Schools are only able to authorise absence from school in exceptional circumstances. In making a request for an authorised absence from school you need to explain why the circumstances are exceptional.  Please note there is no right to authorise absence for a family holiday and if you take your child out of school without permission the absence will be unauthorised and we may refer the matter for consideration of legal action.

You are advised not to make any arrangements until your request has been considered.

Education (Pupil registration) (England) Regulations 2006 have been amended (as of 1 September 2014).  The Principal of a maintained school is not allowed to grant leave of absence to a pupil except where an application has been made in advance and the Principal considers that there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.

You will need to explain why you are applying for an authorised absence and the circumstances which make your application exceptional, and why the leave cannot be taken within the normal 13 weeks annual holiday your child already has from school.

Please click on or scan the link below to fill out our Exceptional Leave Form

Absence QR code

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