Key information:

Attendance and Punctuality

Attendance & Punctuality Expectations

For the full details please refer to the school’s attendance policy for full details. This can be found on the policies page on the About section of this website.

Each year we also produce an Attendance Strategy to get attendance in school to be as high as possible. Please contact the school office if you would like to discuss the specifics around our Attendance Strategy for 2025-2026.

Rationale

The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.

Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school. (excerpt taken from Working together to improve school attendance 2022).

Expectations

Fullwood Primary School expects a high level of attendance from all pupils and parents.The school operates a creative curriculum to build a culture where all can, and want to be in school. We ensure that all stakeholders know that ‘every lesson counts.’

Monitoring

Fullwood Primary School will monitor attendance to identify patterns of poor attendance for both individuals, year groups, and statistically relevant groups and will work together with parents to improve attendance and break bad habits.

Enforce

To protect the pupils right to Education, where support is not working, Fullwood Primary School will as a last resort enforce attendance through statutory intervention or prosecution.

Expectations of School

Regular attendance is essential for positive outcomes for all pupils. Assessment of attendance has shown that children with higher levels of attendance achieve better outcomes than their peers with lower attendance.

Fullwood Primary School will:

  • Develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of high attendance
  • Have a clear school attendance policy which all staff, pupils and parents understand.
  • Accurately complete admission and attendance registers and have effective day to day processes in place to follow-up absence.
  • Regularly monitor and analyse attendance and absence data to identify pupils or cohorts that require support with their attendance and put effective strategies in place.
  • Build strong relationships with families, listen to and understand barriers to attendance and work with families to remove them.
  • Share information and work collaboratively with other schools in the area, local authorities, and other partners when absence is at risk of becoming persistent or severe