St Paul's Catholic Primary School

Please also be aware that when students miss a lot of school through illness, schools are expected to investigate and, where appropriate, request medical evidence before agreeing to authorise those absences. In order to minimise absence it is essential that parents work in close co-operation with school. Please make sure that whenever your child is away from school you contact us straight away. As a parent you are legally responsible for making sure that your child attends school. If your child fails to attend school without acceptable reason you risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted. Arranging appointments and outings after school hours, at weekends or during school holidays will help to prevent disruption to your child’s education and to the school. The school will only agree to term time holidays in exceptional circumstance (that must be provided in writing to the headteacher) and if you do take your child/children out of school without the headteachers authorisation this too may result in a penalty notice. If you are struggling for any reason to get your child into school then please contact a member of staff as soon as possible. We can provide you and your family with practical help and support to ensure your child comes to school. We pride ourselves on our close working relationships with pupils and their families and we will always do everything we can to help. Punctuality also disrupts learning, not only of the child that is late, but also for the teacher and the rest of the class. Children who are late will have missed valuable teaching in the beginning of the lesson and will come into class feeling confused and not knowing what to do.

We have a new way of reporting and recording an absence starting from the Monday 4^th December to support with the monitoring of this. Please contact the school by using the dedicated attendance email address below (not admin email) or phone by 8:30am on the first day of absence and then subsequent days unless agreed otherwise.

Attendance email address: attendance@stpauls373.herts.sch.uk  

Attendance Telephone number: 01992 635060

As I am sure that you are aware, good attendance is a critical factor in a student’s success at school.  Our school target is 96% attendance for all students.

Students must arrive at school between 8:40am and 8:45am.

The register will be called promptly at 8:45am. Any arrivals after 8:45am are marked as late.

Appointments for children should be arranged outside of school hours where possible, if this is not possible, we ask that parents/carers supply appointment cards so we can update your child’s attendance record accordingly.

When an absence has not been notified
The school has a system in place to alert parents/carers when a student is absent from school, when there has not been prior notification of the absence. This means that parents will be contacted by telephone, email or text when a student is absent and no explanation for the absence has been received. We may, on occasions, complete home visits as part of our safeguarding duty if we have not been notified of an absence.

Lateness
Students who arrive late should report to the school office where they must sign in and record the reason for their lateness. Parents/carers should inform the school if a student will be late to school. Persistent lateness will be monitored closely and followed up with individual families.

Further details can be found in our attendance policy under the policy tab.