Reporting Absence for Illness

Parents should inform the school by telephone of the reasons for their child’s absence by 8:30am on the first day of the child’s absence and on each subsequent day of absence unless the office deems it is not necessary, ie chicken pox, covid etc.

If a child is absent with no explanation, school office staff will text or telephone the parents to ascertain the reason. Please make sure that we have up to date details.

Lateness

Classrooms open at 8:30am and this is the time pupils will have the opportunity to be involved in extra intervention catch up activities, reading, review learning from the day before and seek support for misconceptions, time for settling for some pupils etc.

Lessons start at 8:45am; the register is taken and lessons begin. If a child arrives at school once the gates have closed at 8:40am they will be registered as ‘late’; this is an unauthorised absence and the child is counted as absent for the morning session unless parents/carers provide the school with an acceptable reason.

Grace Mary Attendance

The Grace Mary Primary School expectation is that pupils attend school every day for every session. The total hours provided in a typical school week is 32.5 hours. We believe that regular, uninterrupted attendance secures the best possible learning achievement for all our children and we are committed to working in partnership with families to achieve this.

Grace Mary Primary School believes in the fundamental right of all children to have access to a good education. Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education, it is vital that they attend regularly and on time

Medical & Hospital Appointments

We understand from time-to-time that medical and hospital appointments may arise during the school day, but we do ask that these appointments, where possible, are arranged for outside of school hours.

Where this is not possible, evidence of appointments will be required.

A child should only be taken out of school for their own appointment, not because another family member has an appointment. This includes collecting a child early so a parent or carer can attend an appointment for someone else.