Attendance

Education has been recorded as a basic human right in international law since 1948.  The law states that full time education is compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 (4 in Northern Ireland) and 16, the compulsory school age (CSA).  In England, compulsory education or training has been extended to 18 for those born on or after 1 September 1997.  As is expected children’s school attendance is therefore monitored closely.   

 It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their child attends school and a pupil is classed as a ‘Persistent Absentee’ if they miss 10% or more of the school year for whatever reason.

10% equates to approximately 19 days of absence across a full academic year and this includes any late arrivals (e.g. arriving late after 9:30 am would be counted as a missed session and included in your child’s overall attendance calculation).   

How you can help:

• Aim for ten hours sleep a night for your child.  This makes the following day easier for them to cope with
• Make sure your child eats breakfast
•  Help your child develop routines
•  Get their school bag ready the night before
•  Develop a night time routine that involves checking homework, reading and bed
•  Never arrange holidays for during term time
•  Try to make medical/dental appointments outside school hours
•  If your child is ill report this to the school office on the first day of absence

Thank you for your support in ensuring your child attends school regularly.

Attendance Rewards - "On the Bus" Initiative

Children demonstrating regular attendance are rewarded in different ways at Our Lady Queen of Peace from 100% awards to class awards, improvement awards and whole school rewards.

This year we have decided to reward not only the 100% attenders but also any child that achieves 96% or above attendance across the school year.  Therefore there will be 3 attendance award trips per year.

Ask your child about their ticket for the bus attendance reward initiative.  All children were informed about this before they finished for the summer break in July.

To ensure that your child keeps their ticket for ‘On the Bus’, essentially their absences will need to equate to no more than 5 missed sessions (half days) or late arrivals (attending after 9: 30 a.m. for a morning session and after 1:25 p.m. for an afternoon session) across a full term.

The Autumn term runs from September 2nd to December 18th 2020.

The Autumn planned excursions* will be at the end of December

The second planned excursion will take place in April (Spring term – 4^th January to 26th March 2021)

The final attendance trip will be in July (Summer term - 12^th April to 21st July 2021)

*Restrictions permitting