Attendance

Going to school regularly is important for your child’s future. Parents are responsible for making sure their children receive full-time education.

Regular School Attendance

The Oratory RC Primary and Nursery School records details of all children’s attendance and absence from school. We do so at the beginning of morning and afternoon sessions. If your child is absent, you must inform the school immediately by calling the school and leaving a message recording the reason for the absence.

The school will record the absence and the Local Authority will receive this information for each child. The Department of Education also receives annual attendance data for the school.

Your responsibilities as a parent

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.

How to prevent your child from missing school?

You can help prevent your child missing school by:

Making sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality.
Taking an interest in their education, ask about schoolwork and encourage them to get involved in school activities.
Discussing any problems they may have at school and letting their teacher or principal know about anything serious.
Not letting children take time off school for minor ailments, particularly those which would not prevent you from going to work.

To avoid disrupting your child’s education, you should arrange appointments and outings:

After school hours.
At weekends.
During school holidays.

Lost Learning Due to Poor Attendance

The chart below identifies the possible amount of lost learning due to poor attendance:

Authorised Absence

Authorised absence is absence for a valid reason. This includes circumstances for which leave has been granted such as sickness, medical and dental appointments, educational visits or death in the immediate family. This list is not definitive and there may be other events which fall into this category.

This list is not intended to promote authorised absence as we would expect medical and dental appointments to be arranged outside the school day.

A copy of any appointment letter or card should be sent to school. Please note, current policies do not allow holidays during the time school is in session. If you do need to request some time out of school for your child, please complete our Leave of Absence Form.

In the majority of cases, such leave will not be granted.

Unauthorised Absence

Unauthorised absence is unjustified absence. This is absence as a result of premeditated or spontaneous action on the part of the pupil, parent or both. Schools are required to keep attendance registers which record the nature of absence.

Punctuality

Having good attendance also means being on time and not being late to school. Children who arrive late can feel embarrassed, left out and miss out on important introductions to lessons.

Punctuality is an essential life skill that needs to be taught from the very beginning. Our school entrances open up at 8.33am and we expect pupils to be ready to begin their learning at 8.45am.