Reporting absence –

Please phone 01789 740236 or email admin3024@welearn365.com to let us know before 9am if your child is unwell.

At Ettington CE Primary School, we know how important it is for children to attend school and we also know how complicated it can be to support a child in certain cases to have high attendance. We will celebrate weekly high attendance in individual classes – this raises the profile of how important attendance to us.

Our aim is to support children and families to overcome these barriers by working with parents to enable children to be at school as much as possible.

What we find helps parents is being kept up to date with their child’s attendance and, as well as using percentages, to explain absence in ‘days missed’.

In the end of year report, we will be informing parents of their child’s level of attendance compared to national averages.

In order for your child to be above 96% (our school target) they will need to miss less than 9 days away from school for the school year. We would obviously like to limit this to even less days missed from school.

Schools have a category for children who miss a lot of school called ‘persistently absent’ which is set at 90% or below. In real terms, this means that the children miss more than 18 days of school over the school year. These children have greatly reduced chances of success. Therefore, at parents’ evenings and at regular intervals over the year, we will let parents know how many days they have missed in total.

We also understand that some absences are completely unavoidable and, in these incidents, we will look back at children’s attendance over a few years.

Tips for parents:

1. Routines are key! Regular bedtimes, regular meal times and regular ‘home learning’ times help children get ready for school the following day. 
2. Having a ‘non-negotiable’ attitude to school is crucial – make it a normal expectation to attend 5 days a week.
3. It is important to send a child to school even if they are a little unwell (or appear to be) as long as it’s not high temperature, sickness or diarrhoea. If they are struggling, we will send them home. There are certain illnesses that a child will have to stay at home with – as recommended by the NHS. If you are unsure, please ring the school office on 01789 740236.
4. Separation anxiety is common and, quite often, once a parent or carer has left, that child quickly settles and gets on with their day. Therefore, try not to delay any goodbyes and be clear who is picking your child up at the end of the day.
5. We may be able to help if you are struggling with your child. Sometimes, there may be other people we can signpost you to who can help in other ways (medically, financially or just general advice). Please speak with us if you would like help.

Our Attendance Policy is below.