Attendance

It is important that the school and parents work together to achieve good attendance as there is a strong link between good attendance and achievement. The school aims to encourage attendance by creating a welcoming and supporting ethos. If there are difficulties with your child’s attendance, the school will contact you to discuss ways of resolving this.

If your child is unable to attend school due to illness or for any other reason, we ask that parents should notify the school as early as possible in the school day.

Parents should also give careful consideration to the impact on a child’s education of taking holidays during term time. All schools are required to record attendance and absence of pupils and report on these figures to parents, the Council and the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government’s guidance – Included, Engaged and Involved: Attendance in Scottish Schools - issued to all local authorities in December 2007 provides guidance on how attendance and absence at school is recorded. This document clarifies that the majority of family holidays taken during term time will be categorised as unauthorised absence and that schools may only authorise a family holiday during term time under very exceptional circumstances.

Regular attendance scans are undertaken by the management team. When a child’s attendance drops below 90%, parents will be notified by letter and asked to come in to talk to the Headteacher about how best to support their child’s progress.

Persistent latecoming also causes regular interruptions for some classes. It disrupts learning and teaching not only for the latecomer but for the whole class.

At no time during the school day should a child be removed by a parent from the school without informing the staff of the school. This includes lunchtime “disappearances”. If a child is reported missing we will try to contact the parents and, if required, we will ask for help from the emergency contact or neighbours. If we fail to locate the child the Police will be informed. Please help us to keep your child safe. Poor attendance falls into the Council’s Staged Intervention Framework and action will be taken to address patterns of poor attendance.

Taken from the School Handbook 2019/20