Attendance Matters

Plashet School places great importance on attendance and punctuality. It has been proven through numerous studies that students who have good attendance achieve well and develop important social skills. Plashet School expects that students will have at least 97% attendance.

Frequent absence is a serious problem for students as much of the work they miss is never made up, leaving students at a significant disadvantage for the remainder of their school career.
At present, the main reason for a student absence from school is illness.

When deciding whether your daughter is too unwell to attend school ask yourself the following questions:
Is my daughter well enough to do the activities of the school day?
Does my daughter have a condition that could be passed onto other children or school staff?
Would I take a day off if I had this condition?

Think carefully before keeping your daughter from school for medical reasons. If they wake up saying they are unwell, consider whether the symptoms mean they have to stay at home.

Please do not keep your daughter away from school ‘just in case’ when they could be in a class learning with their friends.

If your daughter is feeling unwell enough to require her to be absent then parents/carers need to contact the school office by telephone or e-mail the school at their earliest opportunity.

The school must be informed each day thereafter. Please ensure the school is contacted about the absences.

If school is not notified of the reason for the absence, it will be ‘unauthorised’.

Plashet School telephone number: 0208 471 2418

Plashet School email address for absence: attendance@plashet.newham.sch.uk

Medical Appointments

Every effort should be made to arrange appointments outside of school hours. If this is not possible, the appointment card or letter should be shown at the Attendance Office.

Attendance Letters & Meetings

The school has a clear set of procedures to monitor attendance. The government classes any student with an attendance rate of less than 90% as ‘persistently absent’ and those with 50% or below as ‘severely absent’. Should your daughter’s attendance fall persistently below 95%, a series of letters will be sent out and different procedures put into place.

Stage 1 – there is a general concern about your child’s attendance, this letter is designed to alert you to this, and the effects absence has on a child’s education.
Stage 2 –This means your child’s attendance is becoming a concern. Further absences will only be authorised when the school receives medical evidence. This may be a copy of a prescription /doctor’s note/note from the pharmacy/Accident & Emergency discharge papers.

At any stage you may be invited in to meet with the school’s Attendance Officer and either your daughter’s Year Coordinator or the member of the Leadership Team who oversees the year group. Targets and support plans will be developed in the meeting.

Cases, which move beyond ‘Stage 2’, may trigger Local Authority Proceedings and will involve meetings with Newham’s Attendance Management Service.

Please remember an attendance rate of 90% equates to one day of absence per fortnight. Even a rate of 95% equates to ten days every school year. This is considerable and in the world of work, employers would be concerned about such a figure. We realise that some students do have genuine illnesses and medical conditions. The school will do whatever it can to support such students. Again, good communication is the key.

Punctuality

Students are expected to be punctual to school. The school day begins at 8.50am and students are expected to be on the premises by 8.45am. Students will be given a lunchtime detention by the Year Coordinator if they are late to or miss morning registration. Persistent lateness will lead to further sanctions.

Remember, every minute counts. If a child is ten minutes late every day, this equates to nearly seven days of absence from lessons over a school year.

Leave Of Absence From School (Namely Holidays)

The school does not encourage any leave of absence to be taken during term time. We recognise that holidays can be much cheaper during term time and that work commitments can make taking holidays during school breaks difficult, but doing this can be disruptive to both children’s learning and the school.

The government has issued strict guidelines to schools regarding leave of absence for students. Under these guidelines, Headteachers are not able to grant leave of absence for students during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances and please be advised there are very few exceptions.

Should parents/carers wish to seek leave of absence for their child please email info@plashet.newham.sch.uk and mark this for the attention of the Head Teacher, Mrs McGowan.

Plashet School