Attendance at Lightmoor Village Primary School
Lightmoor Village Primary School is dedicated to working in partnership with parents and the Local Authority to improve school attendance.
Regular school attendance brings enormous benefits to individual pupils, their families, schools and the community as a whole. Without regular attendance, levels of attainment suffer and opportunities are missed to obtain maximum benefit from education.
Persistent absence and lateness will affect a child’s achievement and progress in school. Comprehensive research shows that there is a direct link between a child’s level of school attendance and their level of school attainment.
As a parent, it is your legal responsibility to ensure your child receives a suitable full-time education. It is your responsibility that your child attends school each day and is on time.
A child is classed as persistently absent if their attendance is 90% and below. If your child(ren) are at risk of becoming persistently absent, our Attendance Team will liaise with our Education Welfare Officer to ensure we are offering support and advice to ensure attendance improves.
Don’t underestimate the importance of 100% attendance, even one day missed can have a negative effect on learning.
Punctuality
Pupils must arrive in school by 8:40am on each school day. The register for the first session will be taken at 8:50am. The register for the second session will be taken at 12:50pm for Key Stage 1 and 1:00pm for Key Stage 2.
The importance of being in school on time each day.
Poor punctuality can lead to your child to:
- Feel embarrassed in front of their friends
- Miss the beginning of vital lessons
- Miss important instructions for the rest of the school day
- Learning habits which could affect their employability in the future.
Policies and Procedures
Leave in Term Time Guidance Note and Form for Parents
Working together to improve school attendance
Reporting Pupil Absence
It is the Parents/Carers responsibility to inform the school of their child’s unexpected absence as soon as possible.
Please telephone the school office on 01952 387620 with any absence details on the first day of absence by 9.00am.
Attendance Team
How can I get help with my child’s attendance?
If you are worried about your child/children’s attendance the first port of call is to discuss your concerns with a member of our Attendance Team who may be able to offer support, help and advice.
Please see members of our Attendance Team below:
Mrs Lucy Cowan - Headteacher
Attendance Role -
- Leading attendance across the school.
- Offering a clear vision for attendance improvement.
- Evaluating and monitoring expectations and processes.
- Having an oversight of data analysis.
Mrs Claire Ballisch - School Business Manager
Attendance Role –
- Oversee Administrator attendance role/generating attendance reports for school, governors, Local Authority and other government agencies/policy updates.
- Attend EWO attendance meeting to monitor children punctuality and children with attendance of 90% and below.
- Devising specific strategies to address areas of poor attendance identified through data.
- Arranging calls and meetings with parents to discuss attendance issues.
- Offer and advise targeted intervention and support to pupils and families.
Miss Sarah Goring - Administrator
Attendance Role -
- Check the registers and make first day contact calls.
- Enter ‘U’ code into register for children who arrive after 9:30 and ‘L’ code for children who arrive between 9 – 9:30.
- Enter reason for lates onto our MIS system.
- Updates MIS system on first day of attendance for new arrivals.
- Attend EWO attendance meeting to monitor children punctuality and children with attendance of 90% and below.
- Produce weekly attendance data and alert the attendance team/SLT to any absences.
Some key messages about coming to school on time:
School starts at 8.50am but we have found that opening the gates and classroom doors at 8:40am has made it easier for parents to get their children here on time. The teachers take the children into class at this time so they are ready to start learning.
Please make sure you give yourselves plenty of time to travel and particularly to park your car safely if you come by car.
Children don’t like being late as they miss the start of a lesson, sometimes feel embarrassed, miss out on you being able to talk to their teacher in the morning or they miss out on finding out about what they are learning.
If your child is going to be late due to an urgent medical appointment, please ensure that the office is informed and have seen proof of the medical appointment either before or after they have attended.
Every school day counts but every minute is equally important!
We understand that school mornings can be hectic, but...
Did you know?
Being 15 minutes late each day is the same as missing two weeks of school!
See our minutes lost calculator below to find out how much school you miss each year if you are late:
