At Carrington we take school attendance seriously. Poor attendance,under 95%, affects children’s academic performance and their relationships with peers. Please read our attendance policy below.

attendance policy 22

Registers

Registers are completed by teachers and cover staff. They are closed at 8:40 in the morning and 1:10 in the afternoon. Teachers will either give a slash for attendance or an N for reason for absence unknown. Office staff and the Head teacher will allocate other marks as appropriate.

Absences
Absences are only approved by the head teacher who will look at registers on a monthly basis
Parents can report absence by:
• Talking to teacher
• Phone call to office
• Email to the office
When a child is absent without a message from home, the office assistant/attendance officer will call home on the first day of absence to ascertain the reasons for the absence. The reason will be recorded in Sims.
The Headteacher and the attendance officer will monitor absence, looking for patterns. If the Headteacher is uncertain about the reasons behind absence, that absence will remain unauthorised until an acceptable reason is given.

Term Time absence Requests
Parents should give 2 weeks notice, in writing, when requesting a term time absence. If time out of school is requested for a wedding or family party, parents and carers are asked to provide documentary evidence. Authorisation will only be given if there are exceptional reasons for absence and attendance is over 95%. Authorisation will not be given for a low cost holiday, even when attendance is over 95%. See the Nottingham City Attendance Protocol for more information about term time absence.
Unauthorised term time absence may be referred to the Education Welfare Service by the Head Teacher when a fine is appropriate.
Lateness
Children arriving after 8:40am will receive an L for late. Children arriving after 8:45 am will be marked as an unauthorised absence.

Persistent absence
Absence over 10% is regarded as persistent absence. When attendance falls below 90% the Head Teacher will meet with parents to find out reasons for absence. Once attendance falls below 90% parents may be informed that absence will not be authorised unless there is a strong case that they should be authorised e.g. significant medical conditions. Once there are 10 sessions within a rolling 10 week period, the Head Teacher will refer the family to the education welfare service

Children missing from education
If you are moving house or transferring to another school, please let us know so that we can send on your child’s records. If we are unable to contact you and your child on the phone or through a home visit, we will refer to the ‘children Missing From education Service’