Attendance
Children attending school every day is vital in helping to ensure they reach their full potential. Aside from the fact that we love seeing your children everyday, by attending regularly they are experiencing a broad and balanced curriculum, a wide range of learning opportunities and building their self-esteem.
We work hard at St. Mary’s to promote good attendance throughout the academy. In our weekly Celebration Praise, we celebrate each classes attendance and ‘Attendance Ted’ visits the class with the highest attendance. These figures are published weekly on Class Dojo.
We realise that sometimes our pupils are too poorly to attend school and we therefore ask that families inform the school office as soon as possible to explain why their child(ren) will not be in school on that day. Mrs Preston, in the school office, can be contacted by telephone on 01785 840 314 or via email using office@st-marys-wheatonaston.staffs.sch.uk
Absence from school is discouraged. However, if families are considering taking their child(ren) out of school during the term time, we ask them to put a request in writing to Miss Watts, our Interim Assistant Principal, for consideration. In line with the latest guidance from the DfE (School Attendance, 2016) the decision whether or not to grant permission for a leave of absence for a holiday is entirely at the Assistant Principal’s discretion and can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, it is not an automatic entitlement. If the request is not received before the holiday is taken, permission will not be granted retrospectively.
Following the pandemic, we recognise that some children have become anxious about attending school. Please speak to us as soon as possible so that we can support you.
Punctuality
Arriving at school on time is very important. We ask you to support us by adhering to the times for the start of the school day, as published in our attendance policy.
Pupils who are persistently late for school are regularly missing key routines and lessons which causes disruption to children’s well-being and learning.
Further information regarding attendance can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence
