Thursby
Primary School
Learning and Growing Together
Respect
Team Work
Resilience
Positivity
Responsibility
Attendance
Good attendance is important to your child’s future. Children who miss school frequently fall behind and make less progress academically and socially.
At Thursby Primary School we aim for all children to have attendance of at least 96%.
Days off school add up…
100% attendance | 0 days of missed learning a year | Outstanding |
96% attendance | 8 days of missed learning a year | Good |
92% attendance | 15 days of missed learning a year | Requires improvement |
90% attendance | 19 days of missed learning a year | Cause for concern |
Below 90% | 20 days + of missed learning a year | Poor attendance (Persistent Absence) |
The law does not grant parents an automatic right to take their child out of school during term time and parents or carers must apply to school for a leave of absence.
The Department for Education and Cumberland Council allows a Headteacher the discretion to consider authorising a leave of absence in term time only in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Further guidance and clarification can be found throughout the attendance documents at the bottom of the page.
Reporting an absence
There are several ways a parent or carer can inform us of absence:
- by telephone - 01228 711180
- by email to admin@thursby.cumbria.sch.uk
- by personal contact (face to face when dropping siblings at school)
Parents / Carers are asked to notify school before 9.00am if their child is going to be absent.
Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent/carer then we initiate a first day contact procedure.
First-Day Contact Procedures at Thursby Primary School:
1. The School Administrator will check all of the registers from 8.55am to 9.05am on a daily basis, to identify pupils who are absent.
2. If no contact has been made to inform the school of the reason for absence, then admin will ring the primary contact number on record. If there is no response, then a text/voicemail will be sent to the primary number asking for the parent/carer to contact school immediately.
3. Admin will continue to go through the emergency contact list in order to get the support of other family members in contacting the parent/carer.
4. If no contact has been made by 9.30am, two members of staff, will then attend the home address to establish that the child/family is safe. The Headteacher/SLT must be informed.
5. If no contact can be made, then the police may be informed and the child will be reported as missing.
The decision to visit a child’s home must always be discussed/agreed beforehand with the head or a member of the SLT. On occasion, it may be necessary to contact the police instead of visiting the home due to staff safety.
No child should be unaccounted for during the school day.
This process will be followed on each day of absence from school unless it has been agreed in advance with school that a child will be absent for a set number of days due to infection control measures.