ATTENDANCE AND REPORTING ABSENCES

We have to keep a record of absences by law.

If your child is absent for any reason, we request that you phone the school on the morning of his/her absence and inform us. When your child returns to school a letter must be sent to explain the absence. This will be kept with our attendance records. If you do not inform us of your child’s absence, we will issue a letter asking for the reason. If we do not receive a reply, the absence will be logged as unauthorised. Please note that it is the school’s policy to deem all holiday requests as being unauthorised. Only in exceptional circumstances will a holiday request be authorised.

What are the effects of absenteeism:

90% and under absenteeism is designated as persistent non attendance. Putting 90% attendance under the microscope:

• 90% = 1 missed session (half a day) every week
• 90% attendance over 1 school year = 4 weeks of lost time in the classroom
• 90% over a whole school career = more than one whole year of lost learning

This puts a bit of perspective on the theory around absenteeism in school. Please see the attached documents that will also give you more insight into the reasons why Mundy Junior School take attendance so seriously.

Please may we point out that if your child’s absence is unauthorised we are duty bound to submit the information to the authority to be assessed for legal action.

LATENESS

At Mundy Junior School, we treat lateness seriously; your child should be at school for 8.50am ready to be registered in class at 8.55am. If your child does not register at school by 9.05am your child will receive a late mark. If your child is not registered by 9.10am your child will receive a post registration mark which is classified as unauthorised. Unfortunately, if your child receives several of these late registrations we are duty bound to inform the Education Welfare Officer. It is within their rights to submit this information to the authority for legal action.