Attendance and Punctuality

At St Stephen’s we expect all children on roll to attend every day, when the school is in session, as long as they are fit and healthy enough to do so.

• We do all we can to encourage the children to attend, and to put in place appropriate procedures.
• We believe that the most important factor in promoting good attendance is development of positive attitudes towards school. To this end we strive to make our school a happy and rewarding experience for all children.
• We will reward those children whose attendance is very good.
• We will also make the best provision we can for those children who, for whatever reason, are prevented from coming to school.

What do you if your child is late, ill or has an appointment?

Late

If you are late you will need to enter through the security gate by buzzing through to the office to let you in. Late attendees are always brought to the attention of the Head Teacher. Persistent lateness is always passed to the Education Welfare Officer (EWO).

Illness

If your child is absent you need to let us know. A telephone call, letter or personal contact will be sufficient. Regular, unexplained absence will involve the EWO so please get in touch promptly if your child is away. The school monitors all pupils’ attendance and punctuality carefully. Please be a responsible parent and ensure your child arrives at school on time.

Appointments

A request for a child to leave school to attend an appointment will be granted. Where possible appointments should always be made outside of school hours. Children who need to leave the school during the school day for an appointment must be collected from the main entrance by a responsible adult. 

Awards For Good Attendance

All the children who have 100 per cent attendance in any one term will receive a 100%  lapel badge Bronze for term one, silver for two terms and the covered Gold for all year.  Each week we pick an Attendance Hero who receives a prize in assembly. The class with the best attendance over a half term receives an attendance Prize Cake! One student a term who has full attendance will be picked out of the hat for a special prize. These reset each term for children who may have missed full attendance through illness. 

Attendance Records Monitoring

It is the responsibility of the governors to monitor overall attendance, and they will request an annual report from the headteacher. The governing body also has the responsibility for this policy, and for seeing that it is carried out. The governors will therefore examine closely the information provided them, and seek to ensure that our attendance figures are as high
as they should be.

The school will keep accurate attendance records on file for a minimum period of three years.

Attendance Policy

For more attendance information, please refer to our Attendance Policy on the school policies page.

The School Day

At St.Stephen's our door open at 8.40am.  The registers open for the children at 8.45am.  Our school day ends at 3.15pm.