Newton-le-Willows Primary School
Attendance
At Newton Primary, we strive to achieve excellent rates of attendance for all our pupils. Children must attend school regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. We work in partnership with parents to support pupil attendance and punctuality.
Parents are responsible for the following:
- Ensuring that their child attends school regularly and punctually unless prevented from doing so by illness or attendance at a medical appointment.
- Contacting the school office before 9:30am on the first morning of absence.
- Informing the school in advance of any medical appointments in school time.
- Making requests for leave in term time and providing school with evidence of any exceptional circumstances. Parents should give the school a minimum of 4 weeks’ notice of any leave.
- Talking to the school as soon as possible about any child’s reluctance to come to school so that a problem can be quickly identified and dealt with.
Although parents/carers have the legal responsibility for ensuring their child’s good attendance, the Head Teacher, Attendance Officer and Governors at our school work together with other professionals and agencies to ensure that pupils are encouraged and supported to develop good attendance habits.
We will endeavour to provide an environment where all children feel valued, welcome and secure.
Regular school attendance is essential if a child is to make the most of the educational opportunity available to them. The school takes seriously its responsibility to monitor and promote the regular attendance of all its pupils. It acknowledges that irregular attendance seriously disrupts continuity of learning, undermines educational progress, can lead to underachievement and low attainment and impedes the child’s ability to develop friendship groups within school.
School attendance is subject to The Education Act 1996 and our school attendance policy is written to reflect these laws and the guidance produced by the Department for Education.
We work with the Local Authority Education Welfare Service to improve and monitor our attendance. If your child is not well enough to attend school, please call 01744 678390 to report your child’s absence. We may need to speak to you, either by telephone or home visit, regarding your child’s absence.