Here at The Telford Park School, we view attendance, including punctuality, as a high priority. We would like to invite you, as parents, to work with us to ensure that your children attend school on time, on a regular basis.
What we are aiming for
Average attendance would be around 95% for the year, with outstanding attendance being above 96%. At Telford Park, we aim for all our pupils to have at least 95% attendance. We discuss the attendance of any pupils below 95% with the Education Welfare Officer on a regular basis.
This chart shows the impact of absence on your children’s learning.
We would like to celebrate excellent attendance in several ways.
Every School Day Counts – Termly/Monthly Celebration
Firstly, whenever your child is well enough, we would like them to be in school. To celebrate those who attend school on every day that they can, we have attendance certificates that are awarded half termly to those students who have achieved 100% attendance for the half term.
Alongside this we are running half termly attendance draws to win a prize. Any student that achieves 100% attendance for the half term will be entered into the draw for the chance to win the star prize. Last half term the prize was a new TV with two up for grabs, one for KS3 and KS4. This half term pupils will be entered into a weekly 100% attendance prize draw for each year group as well as an overall tutor competition. Again, pupils who attend 100% for the half term will be entered for the star prize.
We have also reintroduced House competitions where attendance will play a part. The House that achieves the highest attendance will receive extra points for their chance to claim the House trophy.
Lateness
School doors open at 7:30am for breakfast club and close at 8:25am. Any child arriving after 8:25am will be marked as late and they will receive a detention. Any student who arrives after 9:00am is coded as an unauthorised late and will also receive a detention. This will affect their attendance percentage for the year. All our students start the day going straight to their first lesson, if your child is late for this lesson, they are missing vital learning.
Times when your child does need to be absent
If your child is ill, please call the school office on 01952 387400 and select option 1 for attendance. If no one is available to take your call, there is a voicemail option to report your child’s absence at the earliest time possible. The absence can then be recorded on the register; absences must be reported daily.
If your child seems a little off colour, please send them into school as sometimes they perk up once here. If your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea, then there is no requirement for them to be absent for 48 hours after the last episode. Once all symptoms have subsided and they are feeling better, we are happy for pupils to return to school.
If you are in any doubt about whether your child should attend school, please call the office.
Holidays in term time
In agreement with our Governing body, our school does not allow holidays during term time. We appreciate that sometimes there may be exceptional circumstances where this is unavoidable. On these occasions, permission must be sought from our Head Teacher and consent may be given. Any holidays taken without prior permission will be recorded as unauthorised.
Medical Appointments
We appreciate that there are times when medical appointments during school hours are unavoidable. However, we would like to encourage that any non-urgent medical appointments like check-ups and routine appointments are taken out of school hours where possible.
Attendance below 95%
If your child’s attendance falls below 95%, we will notify you with a letter so that you are aware and can work with school to increase this.
Below you will also find a copy of the attendance information provided by the department of education. We hope that you find this useful, if you do have any questions, please contact the school office.
