Attendance

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At Silverwood we know that regular attendance is directly linked to good outcomes and develops skills for life and work. Please support the school in this by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives on time.

Being 20 minutes late every day means you miss 100 minutes of learning every week. Multiply this by 39 weeks a year = 3900 minutes missed a year. Basically, this is 65 hours missed a year!

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Attendance Matters

​National pupil attendance is around 96%. This means that a child needs to attend school for at least 177 out of 190 days to meet national expectations.

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Understanding types of absence​

Every ½ day absence from school, by law, must be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. Therefore, information about the cause of absence is always asked for.
Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical appointments and emergencies.
An absence is classified as unauthorised, if the reason was not recognised as acceptable by the school. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as what is acceptable and what is not.

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Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

• A birthday
• A shopping trip

• ​Day trips
• Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances

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What should I do if my child is absent from school?​

Contact the school office on the first morning before and notify us of the absence and provide a reason.
If you do not inform the school about an absence, the school will phone on Day 1 of an absence 

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Punctuality

​We appreciate mornings can at times be hectic and unpredictable. However, it is very important that all children arrive on time.
We are also aware that most of our children arrive by LA transport. We will work with individual cases to ensure that time in education is maximised.
If a child who is transported by parents is regularly late, a parent will be expected to attend a meeting to look at how punctuality can be improved.

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Promoting Attendance and Support

We believe that working together with parents and carers is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our pupils.
Our Head of Learning and Designated Safeguarding Lead, Terri Chard [email protected] , is happy to work with both pupils and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Come and talk to any member of the Senior Leadership Team if you are having any problems and we will be able to find a flexible solution. 

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Attendance Monitoring

We understand that some children will face additional barriers to accessing education, but  attendance and punctuality is still very  important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance, or if pupils are regularly late to school.
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Wiltshire Council is keen that we adopt measures and involve external agencies if the level of attendance requires us to do so. We understand that the complex needs for some of our pupils may require a degree of medical intervention. However, we know that being in the school environment is essential for all our pupils, therefore we have high expectations of attendance and parents/carers will be contacted if their child’s attendance falls below 95%.

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Click image to enlarge

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Relevant Documents & Forms

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Absence Request Form

Absence Request Form.doc
File Size:	314 kb
File Type:	doc

Download File

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Penalty Notices For Unauthorised Leave of Absence During Term Time Leaflet

Leaflet Guidance For Parents
File Size:	146 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Holidays In Term Time

Wiltshire Local Authority have made some  big changes to the way they are processing Holidays in term time, from 2024-2025.
 
They have clarified with schools that “Holidays should not be taken in term time”. They have further described that any circumstance which is for “leisure” should not be authorised by the school.
 
Exceptional Circumstances are defined by Wiltshire as:

• the death or terminal illness of a person in the immediate family
• service personnel who cannot take leave outside term time at any point in the academic year.

 
Please note:  Family holidays are not considered to be an exceptional circumstance. This includes the reason of  “going on holiday when it is quiet”.

In 2024-25,  Wiltshire Council will also automatically process a Penalty notice for any family taking an unauthorised holiday in term time. To avoid disappointment and a large fine,  please do not book any holidays within school dates 2024-2025.