At Cathcart Street, we put great emphasis our legal and moral duty to promote good attendance for our children. Good school attendance is essential for optimum progress and achievement. Children who come to school regularly and on time make good progress in their learning. We want all of our children to achieve to the best of their potential and they cannot do this if they are not in school learning every day.
If you have any concerns about your child's enthusiasm for school, their health, friendships or learning support please contact us. We often find that a joint approach can be supportive and beneficial for children and parents. As well as school staff, we can also look for support from our partners in the school nursing service, locality team and other professionals.
We classify good attendance as 95%+. That is our aim for all children. Children who have good attendance at school flourish socially, emotionally and academically.
Below 95% needs improving.
Below 90% is a concern. We will contact you about your child's attendance if it is below 90% and request a school based meeting to look at how we can support your child's attendance at school.
Below 85% is a significant concern. We will arrange a school based meeting to look at an action plan for improving your child's attendance. We may have to involve the Educational Social Welfare Officer at this stage. Your child's attendance will be monitored daily by our administration team.
We understand that children get ill and hope that we can support you with this. Our 'Reporting Absences' section of our website highlights what actions parents should take if their child is unwell and what support the school can offer.
The school can only authorise absences for:
- Medical appointments
- Explained illnesses
- Appropriate Religious Festivals
- Authorised educational activity off site (taster day at a secondary school, music exams etc).
- Absence due to exceptional circumstances (compassionate leave, parent home from armed services leave etc).
The school cannot authorise leave for requested holidays. This is regardless of the cost of holidays, bookings by other family members (grandparents etc) or extended family celebrations (family wedding etc).
Unauthorised absences may result in fixed penalty notice fines being applied or further legal action being undertaken by the Educational Social Welfare Officers from Wirral Council.
The national expectation is that children should have 95% attendance across the year.
- One day off per school year means that a pupil has about 99.5% attendance
- Ten days off per school year means that a pupil has about 94.7% attendance
- Twenty days off per school year means that a pupil has about 90% attendance
- 90% attendance means 4 whole weeks off school
Remember : Missed school days are missed opportunities
For further information on attendance, please click here to access our Attendance, Absence and Punctuality Policy