Good attendance and punctuality play a vital role in the education of our children at Sandfields Primary School. Attendance is a key target on our School Development Plan for 2023/24 and we continue to work hard to promote attendance every day.
Regular, unbroken attendance is vitally important in order for your child to reach their full potential.
To help us improve attendance please could you:
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inform us as soon as possible on the first day of your child’s absence from school
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wherever possible try not to take your child for routine dentist/optician appointments during the school day.
Holidays taken during term time will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.
Missed Days Add Up!
100% attendance = no school days missed.
90 – 95% attendance = At least 2 weeks of learning missed.
85 – 90% attendance = At least 4 weeks of learning missed.
80 – 85% attendance = At least 5 and a half weeks of learning missed.
Below 80% attendance = At least 7 and a half weeks of learning missed.
Lateness Adds Up!
Being late by 15 minutes every day, will add up to TWO WEEKS of school being missed each year. Please ensure your child arrives in school by 8.55am at the latest. The doors open at 8.50am. Breakfast club is also available for all children from 8.15 am each day.
Education Welfare Officer (EWO)
Good attendance is intrinsic to achieving the best outcomes possible for individual learners. We have an Educational Welfare Officer (EWO) whose role is to provide help and support to families where regular school attendance is an issue. The EWO is supported by the school staff who make ‘first-day response’ calls/texts to parents of absent pupils.
- Termly badges awarded to pupils with 100% attendance.
- Weekly class reward (decided by pupils) for class with the highest overall attendance.
- ‘In it to win it’ raffle draws with Mrs Kelly, on random days where Mrs Kelly will come around class and use class dojo to select a random pupil for an attendance reward.
Penalty Notices
Welsh Government has instructed all Local Authorities to implement Penalty Notices under the Education (Penalty Notice) (Wales) Regulations 2013. The Local Authority believes that any absence from school, for whatever reason, is detrimental to a child’s long-term life opportunities, so should be avoided if at all possible. A Penalty Notice is an alternative to prosecution with the aim of seeking to secure an improvement in the child’s attendance at school.