Attendance
WE WANT TO SUPPORT FAMILIES WHO MAY BE EXPERIENCING ISSUES AROUND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
If you need to talk to someone about your child’s attendance please contact school and speak to Miss Oxley who is always willing to help and offer support wherever possible.
Tel: 01274 777095
Email: rebecca.oxley@stjames.bdat-academies.org
We all want the best for our children and in order for them to reach their full potential it is important that they attend school on time, every day.
Government expectations are that children come to school at least 96.5% of the time and as a school we have a duty to work and support families to achieve this.
Holidays during Term-Time
If you are considering taking your child out of school during term-time please make an appointment to meet with Miss Oxley for a discussion prior to making any bookings.
Please note holidays in term times are not authorised, please see the Attendance policy for clarification.
Follow the link below to Bradford council's leaflet regarding the following:
- Attendance
- Persistent absence
- Warning and Penalty Notice
The letter provides more information about un-authorised absences and penalty notice letters.
Bradford Council – School Attendance Leaflet
Attendance
Attendance is key to your child’s learning.
Coming to school is a large part of a child’s life. They learn through play and other activities to develop social skills which are essential elements of growing and achieving.
As a school we will continue to promote positive attendance, and it is our job as the attendance team to work with parents and carers to resolve problems which may affect your child’s attendance. One of the ways we will be doing this will be to inform you by letter at the start of each term what your child’s current attendance figure is the current academic year. You will receive a green, amber or red letter depending on the attendance figure. Please be aware that every parent/carer who receives a red letter may be invited into school to meet with ourselves to discuss if there are any ways school can support you in order to improve your child’s attendance. If attendance continues to remain low then we have an obligation to pass this onto the local authority. Punctuality is also monitored as part of this.
Parents have a legal duty to ensure that their children attend school regularly. Children are expected to be in school every day unless the reason for absence is unavoidable. If your child is unable to attend school you must notify us by 9.15am on each day that your child is not in school. For any children who are not in school without us been notified, then a phone call will be made and/or a home visit will be done.
Lateness
It is vital that children arrive on time every day so they are ready to learn and do not miss any key learning. We open the doors at 8.40am for a prompt 8.55am start. The moment your child enters their classroom their learning begins, so please help us to maximise your child’s learning potential each and every day. Please be aware that late arrivals can also affect our overall attendance so ensuring your children are here on time is very important.
Appointments
It would be very much appreciated that any appointments are made outside of school time wherever possible. However, where this is not possible then proof of appointment must be provided for the absence to marked as authorised.
Rewards
We continue to offer a number of rewards to encourage the children to be responsible for their own attendance. We have weekly individual and class rewards for the best attenders and children with 100% attendance are invited to a party every term, with those remaining on 100% at the end of the whole school year been invited on a special trip such as Pizza Hut or bowling.
We have introduced our own mobile attendance shop and the class with the highest attendance for the half-term can choose their own reward such as a party.
