Attendance at St Mary Star of the Sea
Our School Day
School starts at 8.50am. The main gate is opened and children go straight to class. Registration closes at 9am.
If you arrive between 9am and 9.15am your child is recorded as late. If you arrive after 9.15 your child is recorded as Unauthorised.
School finishes at 3.20pm.
School Absences
Throughout the year there are just 190 school days. This means that there are already 175 days set aside for weekend, holidays, family visits and days out. We believe every school day counts towards a child’s opportunity of attaining a good education to support a happy and healthy future. Regular and punctual attendance is of paramount importance in ensuring that all children have full access to the curriculum.
Valuable learning time is lost when children are absent or late. Missing just 3 days a term will drop attendance below 95%. Five days off school equates to 25 hours of lost learning and the notion of catching this up with extra work out of school is unrealistic.
From a child’s perspective, missing school means:
- Disconnecting with school friends.
- Missing out on vital learning and struggling to catch up.
Children should be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.
Children are sometimes reluctant to attend school. Any problems with regular attendance are best sorted out between the school, parents and the child. The school carries out regular, termly attendance monitoring and will contact you, by letter or by offering an appointment, if attendance falls below an acceptable level.
We would encourage families experiencing problems getting their children to school to contact us at the earliest possible opportunity to develop a plan of action to improve attendance.
Full details of the school processes and procedures can be found in the Attendance Policy below alongside the Withdrawal from Learning Form which must be completed for every requested absence.
It should be noted that NO REQUEST (as per Government Guidelines) for holiday in term time will be authorised and taking unauthorised holiday may result in a Penalty Notice. The Penalty Notice is issued to each parent for each child taken out of school. Currently this is a fine of £60 which increases to £120 if not paid within 21 days.
The ‘Get a Grip’ leaflet below outlines the East Sussex County Council Campaign to improve school attendance.
Thank you for your support with this.