Attendance at Gedney Church End Primary Academy

At Gedney Church End Primary Academy we strongly believe that pupils benefit from regular attendance both in terms of academic and social growth. Attending every day is the best way to achieve, succeed and get the most out of all the Academy has to offer. With the support of our parents and carers, our aim is to minimise the amount of time lost due to absence so that every child is able to experience the benefits of attending school and the academy are able to maximise your child/children’s potential.

Useful information can be found here -  Resources for families | Children's Commissioner for England (childrenscommissioner.gov.uk)

As an academy, our target for the year is to reach 95% or above as an indicator of excellent attendance.

 

What you do if your child is absent?

 Each day your child is absent, we ask you to ring the school office on 01406 362383 and please leave a message on the school answer phone, or email us on enquiries@gce.keystonemat.org.  If there are any issues regarding getting your child into school please contact school as soon as possible. 

 We ask if you could please try and avoid making dental and hospital appointments in school time. We understand this can sometimes be difficult, but minimising the time absent from school is crucial. For any child that has an appointment during the day, please ensure you have informed the office and have handed in medical evidence to go along with this. 

 If contact is not made regarding an absence by 9.25am, the front office will contact you. If we receive no contact, then we will have to complete a home visit and possibly a police 'safe and well' check.

Special Educational Needs

 As an academy we strive to ensure that all children are treated equally, every child is different and it is important that every child feels included within the academy. We appreciate that often some children can struggle with the busy starts to the day or to a change in the school routine. However, we are here to help. Our staff work with Mrs Parker (Acting SENDCO)  to ensure that children that may have special educational needs are supported and feel happy coming into school. If this is an area you are struggling with, please contact the school on 01406 362383.

As with all children their attendance level will still be closely monitored and procedures will be followed in accordance with the academy’s attendance policy.

Holidays

We ask that holidays are not taken in term time. As in accordance with our policy, any holiday taken in term time will be unauthorised unless deemed exceptional circumstances and you will be issued with a fixed penalty notice. Holiday forms must be completed and handed into the office prior to the absence.

 Persistent Absence

Children that have an attendance figure lower than 90.5% will automatically receive a letter from the academy, advising you that your child’s attendance has slipped below an acceptable standard and that this will be monitored closely. If your child’s attendance figure continues to drop you will be invited to attend an Attendance Panel Meeting. If your child’s attendance continues to drop and there has been no effort to improve this, we will issue a fixed penalty notice which could then lead to prosecution.

 Details of unauthorised absences and our policies and procedures are all included in the attendance documents below.

How do we reward excellent attendance?

 As an academy, we really enjoy rewarding the children who attend school regularly and the parents that support attendance. We endeavour to ensure that we post a letter of improvement to parents that have supported the school and whose child/children have an excellent level of attendance. We aim to reward children every term who have an attendance of 95% or above with a certificate. At the end of the winter, spring and summer term the children who have had an excellent attendance will be invited to a themed event in school.