Attendance at St George's
Improving attendance is a key priority for us at St George's.
We know that there is a direct link between attendance and our children's personal, academic and personal development.
We classify good attendance as above 96%. National average is 96%. That means that any absence above 7 days will cause us concern.
Department for Education issued updated guidance for all schools regarding attendance in September 2022. These are clarified in our school's policy that can be downloaded at the bottom this page and in the links below:
Department for Education Working Together Guidance to Improve Attendance
Promoting good punctuality involves a strong partnership and commitment to children. We are always here to help and support if your child has any barriers to good attendance.
Department for Education's Guidance on the process for this is very clear:
Pupils
- They will attend school regularly
- They will arrive on time, appropriately dressed and prepared for the day
- They will discuss with their parents or class teacher any issues which are affecting their attendance.
Parents
- They will encourage their child to attend school and support the school’s policies.
- They will contact the school office when their child is unable to attend and also send in a note to the teacher on their child’s return
- They will ensure their child is appropriately dressed taking account of the school’s uniform policy and is well prepared for the day
School
- Will provide a safe learning environment
- Will provide a sympathetic response to any child’s or parent’s concerns
- Will keep regular and accurate records of attendance and punctuality
- Will contact parents when a child fails to attend and where no message has been received to explain the absence. Any unexplained absences will be followed up.
- Will encourage good attendance and punctuality through a system of rewards and recognition
- Will refer irregular or unjustified patterns of attendance to Wirral Attendance Service.
When we raise attendance concerns, our aim is always to ensure that we are making a positive difference for your children. Flow chart below shows how this will be managed within the school:
Below is our attendance strategy, information about how Fixed penalty Notices are applied and our leave of absence request form.
Information on Wirral Council's attendance service can be found online:
https://www.wirral.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/education-social-welfare-service
If your child is not in school and we don't have a reason for this, we have to treat this as a safeguarding concern. Flowchart below explains our actions:
