Attendance and Punctuality
A Parent/ Carer Guide to Attendance and Punctuality
Our school aims to meet its obligations with regard to school attendance by promoting good attendance; ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled; and acting early to address patterns of absence.
How Absence is recorded
Authorised absence means an absence for:
– Sickness which the school have granted leave for.
– Health appointments (which unavoidably fall during school time) and which the school have granted leave for.
– Religious or cultural observances which the school have granted leave for.
– A family emergency.
Unauthorised absence means an absence due to:
Parents keeping children off school unnecessarily or without reason, including:
-Term time holidays which have not been agreed
-Birthdays
-Truancy
-Absences which have not been properly explained
-Arrival after 9.15am where there is no satisfactory reason given for lateness
- Regular attendance is a legal requirement and regular attendance is an opportunity for parents/carers to demonstrate their responsibility and commitment to the education of their child.
- We want all our pupils to enjoy school and grow up to become emotionally resilient, confident and competent adults who are able to realise their full potential
- Every child deserves the opportunity to experience the rich St Andrew’s curriculum, with its contribution to the pupil’s moral, spiritual, cultural, mental and social development.
Monitoring Attendance and Punctuality
By promoting good attendance and punctuality we aim to:
- Make good attendance and punctuality a priority for all those involved in the school community.
- Monitor attendance and punctuality robustly with termly communication to parents/ carers
- Raise our pupils’ awareness of the importance of good attendance and punctuality.
- Provide support, advice and guidelines to parents/carers, pupils and staff.
- Work in partnership with parents/carers to support good attendance
Attendance and Punctuality Targets
We expect excellent attendance and punctuality from all children. We regularly communicate and work with families to support barriers to daily attendance and punctuality.
School absence quickly adds up and then takes away from a child’s chance to be the best they can. 
For further information, you can access our Attendance Policy here: Attendance Policy 2024
Be on Time!
The School Day
From each year group starting times, staff open the gates for pupils to come and participate in morning tasks. This is key learning time. It is essential that your children is on time. Children who arrive after the start of a registration session, but before the end of a registration session will be marked as late.
Late arrival
If a child arrives at school after the relevant registration period has ended, the parent must
immediately go to the school office to sign in and give a reason for the lateness. In the absence of a satisfactory explanation, the register will be marked as unauthorised absence.
Being late for school makes it harder for a child to flourish at school.
Children do better when they’re on time because:
✓ It gets the day off to the best start.
✓ It means they don’t miss a minute of learning with their teacher and friends.
✓ It reduces stress for the child (e.g. because they’re having to rush).
✓ It grows good habits for adult life.
Safeguarding and Attendance:
Our school will monitor trends and patterns of absence for all pupils as a part of our standard procedures. However, we are aware that sudden or gradual changes in a pupil’s attendance may indicate additional or more extreme safeguarding issues. In line with government guidance Keeping_children_safe_in_education_from_1_September_2025.pdf we will investigate and report any suspected safeguarding cases on to the relevant authorities. As part of our safeguarding duty and our standard procedures, we will inform the Local Authority and/or the Police of the details of any pupil who is absent from school when the school cannot establish their whereabouts and is concerned for the pupil’s welfare.
