• Our School Day: Class starts at 8.55am with Registration.
• School finishes: 3.30pm

How Does Absence Affect Your Child’s Attendance? Your child is expected to attend school for 190 days each year. There are 175 non-school days each year. This means you have 175 days to spend on family time, visits, holidays, shopping, household jobs and other appointments.

Improving Your Child’s Attendance

Did you know that your child receives two attendance marks per day? There is one for the morning session and another for the afternoon.

If you have reported your child ill in the morning, but they feel better later, you can bring them back to school. Receiving an afternoon attendance mark helps improve their attendance. If your child has an appointment during school hours please bring them to school, whenever possible, before and after the appointment.

Unsure of whether or not your child is well enough to attend school?

Please do not bring your child to school if they are showing COVID symptoms such as high a temperature (37.6oc or above), sore throat, cough or loss in taste and smell. Please continue to let the office know if you or anyone in your family test positive for COVID, or if your child has a

positive lateral flow test result. This enables us to monitor the number of cases we have and also ensures we take the correct action if an outbreak should occur in a particular area of the school. If your child is negative and still unwell, you can bring your child to school to see our Welfare Officer at the start of the day. If she thinks your child is well enough to be in school she will let you know. The only exception to this is the 48hour rule for vomiting and diarrhoea. We will also monitor your child during the day and can call you to collect if your child starts to feel poorly. If your child requires antibiotics, our Welfare Officer can administer the medication with your written permission.

Evidence to Support Absences

Examples of evidence that can be supplied include appointment cards or letters, copies of prescribed medicine labels or prescriptions. You can email copies of documentation, screenshots of texts etc to tthompson@brettenham.enfield.sch.uk. When evidence is provided to support absences it will usually be authorised.

The Importance of Punctuality It’s a GREAT START to the day, putting your child in a positive frame of mind to make the most of the day’s learning and activities. Punctuality is linked to good attendance, and as we know, good attenders have more opportunities, more support and therefore achieve more! Being on time is important. If you child arrives late in class they can feel embarrassed and miss out on important instructions for the day. Make sure your child has a good daily routine which includes preparing their clothes and book bag for the following day, going to bed on time, getting up and having breakfast and leaving home with enough time spare to get to school on time.

Did you know that if your child arrives after Registers have closed they will receive an unauthorised mark? Poor punctuality can affect a child’s attendance Research has shown that 17 days in a year results in a drop of one grade at GCSE over time.

We are be happy to meet with you to discuss any issues you feel are affecting your child’s attendance and provide support and advice. Please contact Ms Thompson (Attendance Officer).

Medical Guide for Parents