Attendance & Punctuality Matters at St Peter’s CE Primary School

At St Peter’s, we believe that every school day counts. Regular attendance is essential for children to make the most of their education, build friendships, and develop routines that support lifelong learning.

Why Attendance Is Important

Children who attend school regularly:

  • Achieve better academic outcomes
  • Develop stronger social skills
  • Build confidence and resilience
  • Are more likely to enjoy school and feel part of the community

Missing even a few days can disrupt learning and make it harder for children to keep up with their classmates and affect friendship groups.

Our Attendance Expectations

We aim for every child to attend school at least 97% of the time. This means no more than 7 days of absence across the school year.

We understand that children may occasionally be unwell, and we encourage families to keep children at home when they are genuinely sick. However, we ask that absences be kept to a minimum and that holidays are not taken during term time. We will always contact you if your child is unwell.

Our Attendance Monitoring

Attendance monitoring is part of our safeguarding policy and is therefore a top priority at St Peter’s. We monitor attendance on a weekly basis and will inform you if your child’s attendance is being monitored.

We are here to Listen, Understand and Support You

At St Peter’s, we aim to work together and achieve a shared goal of getting your child to attend school overcoming the barriers. We put supportive action plans in place to address the concern and to help overcome barriers.

Formalise Support

Where absence persists, despite all interventions, we may issue an attendance contact and we will explain to parents the consequences of non school attendance whilst still continuing to provide any support that we can.

Enforce

Once all avenues have been exhausted, we enforce attendance through statutory intervention such as penalty notices and prosecution.

Reporting Absences

If your child is unable to attend school:

  • Please contact the school office before 9:00am on the first day of absence.
  • Let us know the reason and expected return date.

Support for Families

Cath Smith and Julie Dawes have  responsibility for improving attendance at St Peter’s. 

We are here to help. If you’re experiencing challenges that affect your child’s attendance - such as health issues, anxiety, or family circumstances - please speak to Cath Smith our Pastoral Support Worker. We offer:

  • Attendance support plans
  • Home visits
  • Referrals to external services
  • Emotional wellbeing support
  • Support from our Well-Being Warriors, Courageous Advocacy Group.  

Celebrating Good Attendance

We love to celebrate excellent attendance! Each week, the class with the highest attendance receives an extra playtime as a reward and there is a prize for the class with the highest attendance at the end of the year.  We also give out certificates and rewards regularly.  

Mr Potato Head!

9Every week we will look at each classes attendance and if the children have achieved over 97% attendance combined, they will be able to add an accessory to their Mr Potato Head!  The first class to build their Mr Potato Head wins a prize!  

Punctuality

Morning registration takes place at 8:45am so it is essential that your child arrives at school on time.  To promote good punctuality we have the following activities:

  • Active Travel Group - Meet us at 8:30am at Bullough Park and take part in our active walk to school challenge! Your child receives badges for the number of times they participate in active travel to school and the children love to be competitive!  
  • Breakfast Club - Opens from 8am.  For £2 a week your child receives a  healthy breakfast and gets to engage in fun activities including our morning Wake and Shake Zumba.  
  • Hot Spot! - All children who arrive at school on time on our Hot Spot days get to participate in our exciting prize draw!  

Attendance Policy