One of the most well-documented phenomena in education is the fact that children who attend school regularly do the best at school.

At Rowner we actively encourage children to be in school whenever possible and are largely successful in this.  To help our families with attendance and punctuality we have a number of strategies to help which include:

  • A ‘drift in’ at the start of the day to make the start of the day comfortable for all
  • Staff stationed at the entry doors to welcome the children and teachers welcoming children as they arrive
  • Regular updates, regarding attendance, in our monthly newsletters
  • Breakfast Club to ease the start of the day for working parents
  • Reminder letters for families
  • Rowner Attendance Team support
  • Attendance Team colleagues available to meet with the children and their families where required

However, it is the responsibility of parents and carers to ensure that this happens. We have a weekly whole-school target of 95%. We regularly exceed this. Our Assistant Headteacher, Miss Sewell in partnership with our Senior Leadership Team, monitors the attendance of every child at Rowner on a weekly basis. They will communicate with you if the school has a concern about your child’s attendance and will seek to work with you to address this. You may need to attend the GFM Attendance Panel meeting.

We ask parents/carers to inform school of the reason for a child’s absence as soon as possible, and no later than 9:15am on the first day of absence and to do so electronically with this form. Where a child is ill the school should be notified of the nature of the illness and an idea of when the child is expected to be able to resume school. Parents/carers should use our ‘Absence Request Form’ when needing to take children out of school e.g. for dental or medical reasons.

Parents/carers should be aware that, within the context of the law, parents/carers are not allowed to take children out of school during term times except in the case of illness or for exceptional situations. SCHOOL ARE UNABLE TO AUTHORISE HOLIDAY ABSENCE REQUESTS. PLEASE come and talk to a member of staff about attendance matters so that we can work together.

GFM-Attendance-Matters-and-The-Attendance-Panel-Aims-and-Protocol