Attendance
At St Matthew’s we know that regular attendance is key to your child’s academic attainment and social and emotional development. When your child is absent from school, they miss learning opportunities that maximise their chance of reaching their full potential.
We promote a strong work ethic and through our rigorous monitoring of attendance aim to prepare our children for life beyond school and maximise the future chances for all. To achieve this, we believe that all children should strive to attend school 100% of the time.
Please click to see enlarged Attendance Ladder
We encourage our children to celebrate attendance through our weekly Celebration Assembly. During this assembly we share the weekly attendance figures for each of our classes and display these on our attendance display. The class with the top attendance for the week receives the attendance award trophy.
We have systems in place to support children and families to achieve 100% attendance. Mrs Wilson (Deputy Headteacher), Mrs Cadman-Smith (Pastoral Manager) and Mrs O’Connell (School’s Business Manager) work closely to monitor attendance, support families and implement systems that challenge poor attendance.
We do recognise that children can be unwell. If you are unsure if your child should be at school, please call us to discuss. Please note that children should stay off school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days.
Is my child too ill for school? - NHS Guidance
From August 19th 2024 the Government have introduced a new ‘national framework for Penalty Notices’. (in Telford & Wrekin the changes apply from 1st September 2024).
There are significant changes that parents need to be aware of:
- If your child has 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10 school week rolling period, you may be issued with a Penalty Notice. These 10 sessions may include any unauthorised absence, including leave in term time and do not have to be consecutive.
- Penalty Notices are increasing to £160 from September 2024. This can be reduced to £80 but only for the first Penalty Notice issued, if paid within 21 days – this reduction does not apply to any subsequent Penalty Notice.
- Any 2nd Penalty Notice, to the same parent for the same child, issued within three years of the date of the first Penalty Notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160
- A third Penalty Notice will not be issued within a three year rolling period, to the same parent for the unauthorised absence of the same child, – alternative action or legal measures will be utilised for subsequent offences.
- In some circumstances a ‘Notice to Improve’ may be issued – However, a Notice to Improve will only be used in cases where support is appropriate. They will not be issued in cases of unauthorised leave in term time for holidays, where information for parents is included on schools website or a simple warning by the school that a Penalty Notice could be issued if unauthorised leave in term time is taken will suffice.
‘Parents should always apply to the Headteacher for any request for leave in term time by completing a request form available from school. (DfE guidance states schools should not authorise leave retrospectively so any leave in term time taken without a request being submitted will be unauthorised absence)’.
In developing and publishing the new national framework, the Government has renewed appeals to parents not to take their children out of school during term time. The Governors and Headteacher of this school support this and students will only be given permission to take leave in term time if there are exceptional circumstances. The DfE Guidance Working Together to Improve School Attendance (Feb 2024) states that: Generally, the DfE does not consider the need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. (Paragraph 38.)
Each application for leave in term time will be considered and if it is agreed and authorised the Headteacher will determine the duration of any leave. However, if the application is not agreed and the absence occurs the dates will be unauthorised. Parents will be notified of any decision in writing. This notification may be hand delivered directly to the parent or posted to the parents’ home address.