St Joseph’s prides itself on its attendance record. We believe that regular attendance at school is key to enabling pupils to progress and enjoy learning and ultimately ensures young people have the maximum life chances.
At St Joseph’s we aim to achieve an average of 98% attendance for the year across the whole school. We work hard to support our families and regularly monitor all children’s attendance. In order to encourage good attendance we will:
- Continue to award our weekly attendance cup to the class who achieves the highest attendance figure each week;
- Issue termly 100% attendance certificates at assemblies;
- Present an award to pupils with 100% attendance at the end of each year to recognise their outstanding attendance.
As parents we ask you to help by:
- Notifying the school promptly if your child is ill or is absent for any other unavoidable reason for example, a visit to secondary school;
- Making non-urgent medical appointments outside of school hours;
- Booking all holidays outside of term time as St Joseph’s will not authorise term time absences for family holidays. Please remember that there are 190 days of school which leaves 175 days to book family holidays and celebrations;
- Making sure children arrive promptly to school. Children need to be seated in class ready for the register at 8.55 am and should not be walking through the playground at this time. Notes will be sent home each week with children that are late 3 time or more per week and we may have to schedule an appointment for you to meet with our Leadership Team if the lateness continues.
At the end of each term the school will write to all parents whose child’s attendance is below 95%. For Persistent Absentees (those whose attendance falls below 90%) we will make an appointment for you to speak to a member of our Senior Leadership Team to discuss your child’s attendance. Please note that Penalty Notices may be issued to parents where children miss 14 sessions within a 10 week period. Hopefully this situation will not arise at St Joseph’s.
We look forward to working with you to improve attendance and improve the learning journey of your child.