First Federation Trust
Registers are inspected on a regular basis by school staff (teachers, office staff and our attendance monitoring team).
Our attendance team meet half termly to review the school's attendance, as a whole school, per class and as individual pupils. Their decisions and review may lead to a parent(s) receiving a letter or a call.
Please do not hesitate to contact the office should you wish to view an overall attendance certificate. Teachers will discuss attendance at parents evening.
Celebration letters of high attendance, 100%, are sent out termly.
Green Letter - Where a child's attendance is giving the school cause for concern an attendance letter will be sent advising the parent that their child's attendance has dropped below 96%.
If attendance continues to drop, the schools Family Support Worker will contact the family to help and support.
Amber Letter - If a parent has already received a green letter and their child's attendance continues to fall to below 93% an amber letter will be sent inviting the parent to attend a meeting with member(s) of the attendance team to try and work out if the school can support the family in any way to improve the child's attendance.
We will also enquire if the child has an ongoing medical condition that the school can help and support with should the absences be due to a high number of days due to illness and medical appointments.
Red Letter - This letter is sent if you have already received a green and amber letter and your child's attendance has continued to fall to below 90%. At this point your child is considered a 'Persistent Absent' pupil. The Education Welfare Officer may be contacted to seek advice and be involved.
Continued low absence, for reasons not deemed acceptable by the school or the Education Welfare Officer will be dealt with by the EWO. If you, as the parent/carer, do not follow any plan or contract set out by the officer you may be fined or served with a court summons.
Medical Absences / Illness
If absences are due to illness or medical and the level of attendance of the child is becoming a concern the school will send a soft medical letter advising parents of their child's attendance record and identifying how many sessions / marks are due to medical / illness out of the possible amount attended. They will be reminded to obtain medical evidence where possible.
If you believe that your child has an ongoing medical condition which keeps impacting on their ability to attend school fully, then the school would ask that the family talk to them about this and the school will consider developing an Individual Health Care Plan with the family and any appropriate health care professionals, to support the child with their education.
If the medical / illness attendance of the child is excessive a further letter will be sent advising the parent that no absences will be authorised due to illness or medical appointments unless the school is satisfied that the reason for the absence is genuine and warranted time away from school. The school would advise the parent to obtain medical evidence to support any further medical absences and if attendance continues to fall the parent(s) may be referred to the Education Welfare Officer.