Why It Matters

At Prudhoe West Academy we recognise the importance of being in school, on time, every day.

The National Average expected for children is 96%.

If your child has 90% attendance, they will have the equivalent of half a day off per week, which adds up to 247 days off over their full school career. This equals one full school year of lost education.

If you have any questions about attendance please pop into the office or give us a call. We're here to help.

What School Will Do 

Weekly

• the class with the highest attendance receives a star. When the class has five stars they can choose a special treat such as an extra playtime, a session with the parachute or a visit to the woods.

Annually

• special treat for children with 100% for the year

What You Can Do

We understand that children will need time off school when they are poorly.

However, you can avoid attendance becoming a concern by engaging with school and not taking unnecessary days off e.g. holidays during term time. Trying to make appointments for your child, and other family members, out of school hours will reduce time missed in the classroom. This will make less of an impact on their school life.

You may not realise how quickly the odd day off can lead to a big dip in attendance percentage, indicating to school and other agencies that there may be problems to address. Remember to install the Scholarpack app to help you monitor your child’s attendance.

If your child is not in school regularly, they will miss out on fundamental learning in the classroom. This is extremely difficult to catch up on and affects all aspects of their future education, as well as forming bad habits.

If your child is unable to attend school because they are ill, then please contact school to let us know. If you do not inform school then school will need to make a home visit.

If you are attending an appointment and it can’t be rearranged or out of school time, please show the office your appointment card/text and your absence will be authorised.

Punctuality is just as important as attendance. If your child has 100% attendance but regularly arrives up to half an hour late, they are still missing vital learning.

If you are late, an adult must come into school and sign them in.

As part of our on-going support system for children and their families you will receive regular updates on your child’s attendance with a strong focus on how it affects their learning.

Most importantly we have an open-door policy. If you have ANY queries or would like support on any matter, we have a great welfare team who can provide referrals or advice.

 

 

Holiday Requests

 

As we continue to recover from the disruption to children’s education caused by the pandemic, it is now more important than ever that children’s attendance is good or better.  Every second in school counts, as missing school creates more new learning gaps which need to be addressed.  The best way you can support your child to recover from the lost school time of recent years is to ensure they are in school and ready to learn every day. 

Please do not take your child out of school during term time as it disrupts your child's learning. We urge parents to book holidays during the 13 weeks of annual school holidays which are available each year. Any term time leave of absence must be applied for more than 2 weeks before the date of leave and can only be authorised by the Headteacher in the case of EXCEPTIONAL circumstances. Leave request forms are available from the school office.

If leave has not been authorised and your child is out of school then you may receive a minimum fine of £60 per child, per parent.  If the time out of school makes your child’s attendance drop below 90% then they are known as persistently absent under the Government's attendance definitions.  This means that you may face prosecution through the courts.  

Please help us to help your child catch up by ensuring they are in school and ready to learn every day.