School Attendance & Punctuality

Attendance

At Rudston we believe that for children to achieve their full potential they need to attend regularly and punctually. Children should be at school, on time, every day the school is open, unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Parents/carers should contact the school on the first day of a pupil’s absence. They should state the reason for their child’s absence and also the date on which they are expected to return to school. Notification of absence should be by parental note, school app, telephone call or personal contact.

Longer periods of illness, due to chicken pox, flu, etc are expected. However, some children have two or three days away from school throughout the school year due to illness. This quickly adds up to pupils missing a significant number of days. This is why we are asking parents to consider if their child really needs to miss the time from school. If possible, bring your child to school and see if they could manage being in school, or bring them in a little later.

Ring, or ask at the office for advice if you are not sure. We will always call you if your child is too ill to be at school. In the register it is noted that school sent the child home, as evidence of this action.

Children who are consistently absent with two or three days’ illness as a pattern will be asked to meet with the headteacher and EWO to address any health concerns.

Late Arrivals

The school day begins at 8.45am for Reception, 8:50am KS1 and 8:55am KS2, and children should be in the school playground or year group entrance area when the doors open to signal the start of the school day. The school gates are closed by 9.05am in the junior entrance and 9.ooam in the infant department, and any child who arrives after this time will need to enter school at the main entrance on Rudston Road and report to the office giving the reason for lateness via the electronic sign in. Our attendance is currently at 96.59% which is above the average for Liverpool Schools.

At Rudston we have been working hard to improve attendance and time keeping at the school. There are a few key things that we wish to develop with all our families:

• It is essential that parents are on time bringing children to school and when collecting them at the end of the day. Class teachers will be asking for reasons for any lateness and persistent lateness will be further investigated by school or the Education Welfare Service.
• We will be rewarding classes with good punctuality every half term.
• Please continue to ring with reasons for absences. The school number is 0151 722 2435.
• There has been a change of policy with regard to punctuality. The Local Authority is urging schools to issue penalty notices to families that are persistently late for school.
• Before this action, we would write to you informing you of your punctuality record then, if there is no improvement, a parents’ meeting will be arranged. Only if there is no improvement following this meeting would any type of fine or court procedure be used.

This is an area of school life that we can only improve with your support and co-operation.

Dental and Medical Appointments

When the Education Welfare Officer and Mrs Sillifant reviewed the registers, there were significant numbers of appointments and random days’ illness that have affected our overall attendance, so we are asking parents to follow these guidelines:

• Please don’t make dental or GP appointments during the school day. We understand that this is difficult where hospital outpatient appointments have been made for you, but these do not take up the whole day and your child can attend school before/after the appointment
• Please bring your appointment card or letter to the school office. It will be looked at and you will receive a slip to say that the appointment card has been seen and we will set an agreed date or time for your child to return to school
• You will keep a copy and should an Education Welfare Officer, Community Police Officer or other official ask why your child is not in school, you have authorisation evidence
• School will keep a copy of the slip for your child’s attendance record
• If it is an emergency appointment, please bring evidence of that afterwards and then it will be authorised

 

Weekly Attendance

Our Overall School target is 96% Please make every effort to ensure that your child gets to school each day to achieve our target. Poor punctuality means your child misses valuable learning time and that lessons are disrupted for other pupils. Please make sure your child arrives at school for the given times.