Attendance

At Didsbury Road Primary School, we are proud of our excellent attendance. We believe there are many positive benefits to be gained from regular attendance, including being on time for school every day. Through our attendance strategy, we work closely with all members of our school community to promote excellent attendance for all of our pupils.

Why is attendance important?

Regular attendance at school helps children to build and sustain secure relationships with their peers and adults. Children are also more likely to have good self-esteem if they have high attendance because they know what to expect each day and will not have missed important learning. In addition, research also shows that children with the highest attendance rates throughout their schooling gain the best GCSE and A level results. Finally, having the regular routine of going to school every day helps children to feel secure and develops good habits for life.

Monitoring attendance

Where a child's attendance falls below 95 per cent or is sporadic, including being late for school, we will seek to find ways to support families in ensuring that children are in school every day on time. We use Stockport Council’s staged attendance process as a framework for our work with individual pupils with low attendance. We recognise that, in most cases, improvement in attendance can be brought about by good communication and strong partnerships between parents, pupils and the school to identify and address the barriers to attendance. However, if the issue cannot be resolved at a school level and attendance does not improve, it may be necessary to involve the local authority, who have the power to take legal action as appropriate.

Some key attendance facts:

90% attendance sounds good, but in reality it means that your child misses one half day each week and nearly four weeks every school year. An average attendance of 80% or less across a child’s school career adds up to missing a whole two years from school. 

Being late for school reduces learning time. If a child is 5 minutes late every day they will miss three days of learning each year. If a child is 15 minutes late every day they will miss 2 weeks of learning each year. 

Illness

Sometimes children are too ill to come to school.  Please phone school on the first morning of the absence to let us know why your child is off school, otherwise it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

Medical Appointments

Wherever possible medical appointments should take place after school or in the school holidays. If you have to take your child for a medical appointment during school time, we will need to see proof of this appointment.

Holidays in term time

Holidays in term time will not be authorised. Parents should  be aware that if their child is out of school for holidays or trips, legal action for unauthorised absences could be taken by the local authority. Each parent/carer may receive a penalty notice of £120.00 for each child. This will be reduced to £60.00 if paid within 21 days of the fine being issued.

Religious observance

On some occasions religious festivals may fall outside of school holidays or weekends. Parents are requested to give advance notice to school if they intend their child to be absent for religious observance. In order to fulfil legal requirements, in such cases, pupils must attend school for at least 200 sessions every 12 months.