At St Elizabeth we are dedicated to improving our attendance and ensuring all children have equality of access to education.  We work in partnership with our families to ensure that children regularly attend school. A good education gives a child the best possible start in life. We must ensure that all our pupils have an equal chance to make good use of the education that the school offers by providing a positive and encouraging atmosphere. To achieve this it is important that each child attends school regularly and punctually. When a child does not attend school regularly and on time they will have difficulty keeping up with their work and will therefore underachieve.

The school recognises that parents/carers have a vital role to play in supporting and encouraging good attendance and punctuality. By accepting responsibility in partnership with the school, we can work together to ensure the children’s right to a full education, as well as enabling parents to fulfil their legal responsibility.

To help with punctuality, there is a breakfast club in the KS1 Hall from 7.45am. In addition, the playground opens at 8.45am and parents/carers are welcome to bring their children and either wait with them or leave them to be supervised by staff from this time.

All lateness/attendance is recorded and monitored by the school and our Tower Hamlets Education Welfare Officer.  In most cases, the only acceptable reason for a pupil to miss a day of school is if they are too ill to attend. If this is the case, you should ring the school office by 8.30am and explain the reason for illness.

All absences must be reported via the absence form or by calling the school office.

It is our responsibility as a school to record attendance and follow up any absences.  We work closely with the Tower Hamlets Attendance and Welfare advisor when monitoring absences. In a small number of cases we issue sanctions, including fixed penalty notices in line with local authorities’ codes of conduct.  We have adopted the Tower Hamlets policy regarding holidays in term time. This means we will not authorise any holidays during school time. This could mean that should you decide to take your child on holiday during term time they could lose their school place. You could also be fined as we have adopted the Tower Hamlets Penalty Notice Scheme.

In addition to this authorisation for absence will not be given for outings, shopping trips or family visits. Holidays should be taken during the school breaks and not during term time. In exceptional circumstances permission may be sought from the Headteacher and every case will be treated individually.  Medical appointments should be made out of school hours if at all possible. If your child has to see a doctor or dentist in school time they should attend school for as much of the day as possible. It is not permitted to take a whole day off school for a medical appointment unless the appointment lasts all day.

If you need support regarding your child’s attendance or have any anxiety you and your child may be feeling about school please contact school@st-elizabeth.uk and a member of the leadership team will follow up with you.