At Pedmore, we view attendance and punctuality as crucial elements of a child’s holistic development, mental wellbeing and academic achievement. We aim to collaborate closely with families to ensure good attendance whenever possible. We recognise from parent feedback that many families may not realise how quickly absences can accumulate, and that regular updates on attendance would be beneficial. As a result, we will monitor attendance at least every half term and provide consistent updates to parents to keep them informed about their child’s attendance.

Attendance below 95% raises concerns, as it indicates that children are beginning to miss significant amounts of school, which can lead to persistent absence (defined as less than 90% attendance). A child with 89% attendance at the end of an academic year will have missed 42 sessions, or 21 days of school. Such levels of absence can severely impact a child’s educational prospects and overall wellbeing. Therefore, we seek the full support and cooperation of parents in addressing this issue.

Abence during term-time can only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances are deemed as circumstances that are unavoidable, or beyond your control to change. Exmaples of these may include

• attending a funeral of a close relative
• religious observance
• wedding of close family member

This list is not exhaustive and remains at the discretion of the Head Teacher, or someone directed to act on their behalf.

To give you an idea of how many sessions (a half day, morning or afternoon, is 1 session) are missed, see the table below.