Attendance Matters

Bowness Primary School wants to ensure that every child gets the very best education, maximising opportunities for each pupil to achieve their full potential. This can only be accomplished if children attend school every day.

All children have the right to an education.

Parents and carers have the responsibility of ensuring their children are on time and attending regularly.

Good Attendance

Our target for attendance is 96% and above.

Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life. We believe that children who do not attend school regularly are more likely to:

• Fall behind in their school work
• Find it difficult to make and keep friends
• Be unhappy at school

Setting good attendance patterns from an early age will also help your child later on. Employers want to recruit people who are reliable. Therefore, children who have a poor school attendance record may have less chance of getting a good job.

A whole year has 365 days. A school year has only 190 days. This leaves 175 days to spend on family time, visits, holidays, birthdays treat, dentists, and hospital appointments. 90% attendance is equal to 1 day off each fortnight!

100% Attendance Very Good - Best chance of success. Gets your child off to a flying start.

90% Worrying Less chance of success. Makes it harder for your child to make progress.

80% Serious concerns. Your child will find it difficult to make progress, learn new skills and build social networks.

Our Attendance Team

Bowness Primary School attendance officers are Mrs. Wain and Mrs. Forster, who manage the attendance data for our school and will contact you if there is a concern about your child's attendance. Please ensure that if your child is absent from school you contact Mrs. Wain to give an explanation otherwise it could result in the absence being recorded as unauthorised.

Attendance Awards and our School Attendance Data

Here at Bowness Primary School, we aim to develop an ethos, which demonstrates to the children how much we value them coming to school regularly and on time. We teach the children that regular and punctual attendance is an essential ingredient for their learning to be effective. Each Friday attendance is celebrated in the Head of Schools assembly with the winning class receiving a reward. Class attendance is also displayed weekly on the school attendance display and on the school newsletter. At the end of each half term, pupils achieving 96% or above attendance earns a special reward or treat chosen by the School Councillors. Mrs Forster announces the winners of the attendance awards by sending each child an individual note or invitation. At the end of the school year children with 100% attendance are rewarded.

Monitoring Attendance and Punctuality

The school target for attendance is 96% or above. We monitor attendance on a weekly basis and send letters to parents whose child's attendance is below 95%, their attendance is monitored weekly for improvements. All parents receive attendance reports each half term to inform them of their child's attendance and absences. Late arrivals are monitored on a weekly basis too and letters will be issued to parents/carers of pupils who have arrived late on more than 5 occasions during half term. If the pupil continues to be late, parents will be asked to attend a meeting with the Head of School.

Fixed Penalty Notices

As of September 2013, Bowness Primary and the Local Authority have decided they will issue Fixed Penalty Notices under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996 to parents/carers for failing to ensure regular school attendance for their child. The change in government legislation means that family holidays are no longer authorised absences. Family holidays taken in term time may result in a penalty notice being raised. This is also the case where there are high numbers of unauthorised absences within an academic year. Leave of absence during term time will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances and this is at the discretion of the Headteacher. Please book an appointment to speak to Mrs. Forster direct if you feel that you need to discuss an absence or if you are struggling to ensure that your child is regularly attending school.

A Fixed Penalty Notice Results in:

• A cost of £60 per parent/carer for each child. This will require payment to be made to the Local Authority within 21 days.
• The cost increases to £120 per parent/carer for each child if payment is not received within 28 days.
• If the penalty is not paid in full by the end of the 28-day period, the Local Authority will instigate Court proceedings and the outcome of a prosecution could be up to £1000 per parent/carer.