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    • Attendance

    Good attendance is central to our vision and values. We prioritise attendance, not only from an academic point of view, but also to enhance a pupil's overall wellbeing and social confidence.

    Attending school regularly helps children to: achieve stronger academic outcomes, build friendships and develop social skills, strengthen emotional wellbeing and resilience, establish positive habits for future education and employment, engage fully in school life and activities.

    At St. Michael's Woolmer Green we would like to support all our pupils and parents/carers to work with us so that we can understand and address any in-school barriers to attendance.

    We will meet with the families of those pupils at risk of persistent or severe absence, and agree actions or interventions to improve the situation.

    We will also make any referrals to services and organisations that can provide support.

    How Can Parents/Carers Support the School?

    We ask that all families support the following expectations: 

    • Children attend school every day it is open, unless they are unwell or have a valid statutory reason.
    • Children arrive on time and ready to learn.
    • Families follow the school’s attendance policy.
    • Parents/carers notify the school promptly when their child is absent unexpectedly. 
    • Medical appointments are scheduled outside of school hours when possible. 
    • Requests for leave of absence are made in advance and only in exceptional circumstances.    

    You play a crucial role in supporting your child’s attendance.

    You can help by:

    • Encouraging daily, punctual attendance
    • Communicating with the school about any concerns or barriers
    • Engaging with any support offered to avoid the need for more formal interventions

    Daily Attendance Protocol

    The playground gate opens at 8.30am and a member of staff is always on duty in the playground. Classroom doors are open at 8:40am for the children to take part in focused activities before the doors close at 8.45am and registers are called.

    Any late arrivals have to enter via the main building and report to the Office, where they will be signed in.

    Sickness:

    In the unfortunate event that your child becomes unwell and is unable to attend school, please inform the office before 8:45am each day that they are absent, either by:

    Please note that your child must not attend school for 48 hours after their last incidence of vomiting or diarrhoea. 

    For more helpful information please click on the link below:

    Leave of Absence

    As a parent or carer, you should fill in the form below if you want to take your child out of school during term time, and after completing the form, you should return it to the school office for authorisation.

    Following changes to legislation introduced by the Department for Education (DfE) in August 2024, schools are now required to treat requests for term-time leave—such as holidays—as unauthorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. In such cases, a penalty notice must be considered.

    Exceptional circumstances are typically unavoidable, one-off events. Holidays taken for leisure or recreation do not meet this threshold.

    There is now a single consistent national threshold for when a penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England, of 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. The 10 sessions of absence do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The Governors at St. Michael’s support this as it protects teaching time and reinforces the legal requirement for every child to receive full-time education.  

     

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