Attendance and Punctuality

Attendance

Parents/carers have a legal duty to make sure their child receives a suitable education.  Regular attendance at school is vital for your child’s progress and you have legal responsibility to see that your child is in school and on time every day. 

Good attendance means being at school at least 96% of the time.  A child with 90% attendance has missed the equivalent of half a day a week.

If your child is too ill to attend school then you must telephone the school to explain your child’s absence.  If you do not contact the school and we are unable to establish whereabouts of your child, we may visit your home or refer to the appropriate authorities to ensure your child is safe.

If a child is absent and the school either does not receive an explanation from the parent/carer, or considers the explanation unsatisfactory, it will record the child’s absence as ‘unauthorised’, and the parent/carer could be at risk of receiving a penalty notice or being prosecuted.

A list of school holidays is issued every year and family holidays should be planned within these dates. In line with government guidance, Islington schools will not authorise holidays in term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Headteachers are only allowed to authorise leave in term time in certain exceptional circumstances, for example attending a family funeral.  You must fill in an request for absence form which can be collected from our school office.

Punctuality

At SMMA Primary we teach the children the importance of being punctual each day.  In the first few minutes of the day routines are set in place and latecomers cause disruption not only to their own learning, but that of others. 

The gates are open for children to enter school between 8:30am and 8:45am. They come through the gate and go straight to their classes for a soft start.  Any child who arrives after 8:45am has to be marked as ‘late’ in the registers. 

Lots of families use our daily breakfast club as a way of ensuring their child is arrived and settled in time for the start of the school day.