We are pleased to report that attendance at Portesham Primary School is consistently high with improvements year on year. We operate a certificate incentive scheme which celebrates great attendance and that has generated positive results. A high attendance rate suggests that children are happy in school and enjoy being here.

Registration

Our school day starts at 8.45am.

Pupils who are not present for registration but arrive before 9.25 am will be marked as present but late. Any pupil arriving after this time will be marked as an unauthorised absence.

If your child has a medical appointment which will force them to be late please ensure you inform the school in good time.

Parents/carers are requested to telephone the office on 01305 871283 and leave a message before 8.45am if their child is going to be absent/late. The reason for absence must be in full i.e sickness on Sunday, temperature, severe cold etc. Please do not leave vague messages as the school office will need to call you back for more information.

When a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent, we will initiate the first day contact procedures. If no message is left with the school office, we will telephone in turn each of the contacts on the list provided by the parents. If we are still unable to get confirmation as to why the child is not in school we will proceed to a welfare check (this is a visit to the home address). This is normally carried out by the senior staff from the school or the Educational Welfare officer. If we are still unable to confirm the child’s welfare we will call 101 to report the child as missing. This is the school’s duty of care and safeguarding for your child.

Absence

Guidelines state that children are required to attend school regularly in accordance with the requirements of the school. This equates to 100% attendance.

From September 2013 Headteachers do not have the authority to grant leave of absence for holidays.

If parents disregard these regulations they will be breaking the law and could face a fine. The school is legally obliged to record unauthorised absences.

The Headteacher will assess requests for leave of absence for exceptional circumstances.

If your child is unwell

Please ring the school on the first day of absence or send a written message.

The School telephone number to report absence is 01305 871283.