Attendance
Being in school and having the best attendance possible underpins all the many benefits of school for your child, such as their learning, wellbeing and wider development.
Opening hours
| Breakfast club | 8:00am – 8:45am |
| School hours | 9:00am – 3:30pm |
| After school clubs | 3:30pm – 4:30pm |
Maximising your potential
At SSQ, we want children to be in school as much as possible and on time.
100%
Excellent
96-99%
Good
90-95%
Needs to improve
89%
or less
Really needs to improve
Contacting us
If your child is absent, please contact us in the morning of their first day of absence to let us know why they are off.
This should be done by either:
- emailing [email protected]
- phoning 02077033049 and pressing 1 when directed to leave a message
- coming in person to the school office
Do continue to contact us on each day of absence to update us.
If we don’t hear from you, the office will contact you.
Illness
It can be tricky deciding whether or not to keep your child off school when they’re unwell. Read the NHS advice and/or speak to the school office to help you decide whether they can go to school.
Anxiety
Attending school usually helps to protect your child’s mental health, for a range of reasons including giving them a chance to be with friends and to benefit from learning. However, some children can be anxious or worried about going to school, particularly around the start of the new year or after holidays. If anxiety becomes an attendance issue, speak in the first instance to your child’s class teacher. Read the advice from Young Minds.
Issue in school
If your child is struggling to attend because of an issue in school, let us know so that we can help sort the issue out. Do encourage your child to attend while it is being sorted out.
Speak with your child’s class teacher or a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Carol Shone is the SLT member with responsibility for attendance.
Unacceptable reasons to have time off school
Birthdays, shopping trips, waiting in for a delivery, outings, visits to relatives, holidays and lack of school uniform aren’t acceptable reasons for missing school.
Term time leave form
Parents are requested to complete a term time leave form in advance of any non-medical planned absence. Examples of this could be for a special family occasion like a graduation, travelling to see family, or a holiday.
This form can be accessed below or can be collected from the school office. You will hear back shortly after submitting it so that you know if the leave will be authorised or unauthorised.
Punctuality
Children are expected to arrive at school between 8:45-9:00am so this is the time when the main gate and the EYFS gate are open. Any child arriving after 9:05 will be recorded as late. Children arriving after 9:30 will not receive their attendance mark for the morning’s session.
All children arriving after 9:05 (including nursery and Reception children) need to go into school via the main gate & office to make sure they are marked in.
Punctuality tips
- Get clothes & bags ready the night before to speed up the morning routine
- Make sure your child is in bed at a reasonable time
- Set a wake-up alarm. Also set an extra alarm for 10 minutes before you need to leave the house and make sure everyone knows that means they need to hurry up
- If you’re not attending breakfast club, aim to be at school when the gates open at 8:45. If you aim to be in by 9:00 but you’re running late, then you are likely to be late. If you aim to be in by 8:45 and are running late, you may still be in on time
- Let your child's teacher know if your child is having problems getting up for school or being slow in the morning
