Brompton Westbrook Primary School

Punctuality

Punctuality is very important here at Brompton Westbrook

Being on time for school is important for a quality education so please make sure your children arrive at school on time.

Any child who is late misses:

• An important part of the day
• Disrupts the rest of the class when they enter the classroom
• Creates unnecessary work for our office staff

We have a before school club available which is helpful to help them get to school on time. Please speak to the office if you would like a place. 

It is extremely important that children arrive at school in time for registration. Arriving late is upsetting for your child and children that are late miss vital elements of learning and may find it difficult to cope with group work at later stages.  Persistent lateness is recorded and *referred to Attendance Advisory as Department for Education guidance.

*Regular lateness will initially be discussed with families and staff to see how we can help to improve punctuality but if improvements are not made, it can result in referral and a fine being issued by Attendance Advisory.

Attendance

Help us to help your child.
Please ensure that your child comes to school everyday. This is your legal responsibility. Those children who come to school regularly make much better progress then those who don’t. Any child who has time off school for whatever reason misses important teaching and a great deal of work.

Sometimes children are too ill to come to school, but sometimes they can still come to school. The NHS has produced this guidance to help parents decide when it is fine to send children to school with some symptoms, and when you should definitely keep children off school: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

 To make reporting absence even easier we are using Studybugs which makes absence reporting so much more convenient for parents! 

Or you can email bromptonabsence@thewestbrooktrust.org

If you would like to read our attendance policy in full please click here.

Every week during celebration assembly Reggie the Robin flies off to the class in school with the best attendance and he stays there for the whole week - please ask your child about him!  It has become a real competition in school to see which class can strive for the highest attendance in order to welcome Reggie.

This chart shows how only one or two days absent can have a huge impact on your attendance...

This is the number of lessons this means your child misses:

Absence

Should your child be too ill to attend school you must notify school with an explanation for your child’s absence before 9.00am on the first day of absence or the absence may be registered as unauthorised. 

10 unauthorised sessions can result in a penalty notice being issued.  

You must contact the school daily during absence.  If your child is away for up to three days you must keep the school informed by studybugs/phone or email.  After three days the school will require medical evidence to support the longer length of absence.

Please note: The school Attendance Officer and Family Liasion Officer often carry out home visits to children who are absent to check if there is anything the school can support with.

A list of school holidays is issued every year and family holidays should be planned within these dates. Taking children out of school during term time in exceptional circumstances is only authorised upon application to the Headteacher (these are very rarely agreed!).

We aim to intervene to offer support to families of children with poor attendance. We understand that sometimes there may be difficulties and so we have a Attendance Officer (Nikki Hambelton) and Family Liasion Officer (Karen Liddle) to help as a first resort.

However, if attendance becomes or continues to be a concern, and our support has not improved attendance, then steps will be followed.

Doctor and Dentist appointments

As a rule, doctor and dentist appointments should be made outside of the school day. If this is unavoidable, please make the appointment either:

• Early in the school day, and ensure that your child is back as soon as possible or
• Late in the school day, and your child remains at school until a reasonable time before the appointment

What can you do to help us….help you?
We realise that on some occasions there may be a particular problem that causes your child to be absent. Please telephone –
01634 844152 on the first day of your child’s absence to let us know, and we will deal with this sympathetically.