Attendance
Auckley School has a statutory duty to keep your child safe which includes knowing where they are if they are not in school. We appreciate that children are sometimes genuinely ill. If your child is going to be absent due to illness, please inform the office by 8:30am on every day of absence. If you do not contact the office, school will ring you followed by every contact we hold for your child until we speak to somebody. If your child is absent for two consecutive days and we are unable to contact anybody, we may visit the family home in order to ensure that your child/children are safe and well. If we are still unable to contact a named contact, then we may call 101 in order to seek the police’s assistance in locating the family.
Rewards for Good Attendance and Punctuality
At Auckley, we recognise the importance of good attendance and punctuality and as a result, we reward the children in the following ways:
- Weekly cake for the classes with 100% attendance
- Weekly mention to the 3 classes with the best attendance and punctuality in celebration assembly, trophy and certificate for the highest class
- Termly individual certificates for 100% attendance,
- Termly reward for the class with the best attendance (pizza parties, class film with popcorn etc )
Auckley School Attendance Procedures
If your child’s attendance drops below 96% without good reason, you will receive letter 1 informing you that we are concerned.
If there are further absences, letter 2 will be sent inviting you in to a meeting to look at the issues causing irregular school attendance and if appropriate, put in a suitable support plan to help you with this.
Following letters 1 and 2, if there is no improvement in your child’s attendance, then the following actions may be taken:
- Home visit from the Education Welfare Officer
- Education Penalty Notice warning letter
- Voice of the Child
- Education Penalty Notice
- Court Proceedings
Punctuality – Arriving at school on time
School opens its gates at 8:40am and a bell is rung in the playground at 8.50am, this is the signal for children to line up and enter their classrooms with their teacher. Registration begins immediately after this from 8.50am.
If your child arrives after 9:00am, they will be marked as L in the register, which means they are late.
If they arrive after 9:20am, they will be recorded as U and this results in an unauthorised absence for the morning, which affects your child’s attendance. You may receive a letter, a home visit and be invited to a support meeting if we are concerned about the number of late marks your child has.
Auckley has a breakfast club and all children are welcome. The breakfast club opens at 7:45am and provides your child with a healthy breakfast and the opportunity to develop their social skills. You may find that regular attendance at breakfast club may help to improve your child’s punctuality.
Unavoidable Medical Appointments
We appreciate that some children have unavoidable medical appointments during term time such as speech and language or hospital appointments. All we ask is that you provide a copy of the appointment letter. Although we cannot mark a child present who is attending an unavoidable medical appointment, if these are their only absences, 100% rewards will not be affected.
Holidays during Term Time
Holidays during term time will not be authorised, unless there are exceptional circumstances, and an Education Penalty Notice will be requested from the Local Authority. If you are planning to remove your child from school to take them on holiday, please complete a Leave of Absence form, available from the office or below. Please be aware that if you do not complete a Leave of Absence form or inform school that you are taking your child on holiday, but school has good reason to believe they are absent due to a holiday, then an Education Penalty Notice may still be requested. (Please refer to part c of section 3.1 ISSUING A PENALTY NOTICE of the attached Doncaster Council Code of Conduct for Education Penalty Notices May 2018).
The Penalty is £60 per parent per pupil and if not paid within 21 days this will increase to £120. Failure to pay the full amount within 28 days will result in a summons to appear in the Magistrates Court.