Acorn Academy recognises the importance of regular attendance.

In addition to this it is vital that each child arrives at school on time everyday.

We firmly believe that children need to attend every session that school is open in order to benefit from the vast learning opportunities that are on offer.

Irregular attendance severely disrupts learning which leads to under achievement.

Responsibilities of Parent/Carers

There are legal responsibilities on parents/carers to secure education for their children of statutory school age, whether this is at school or otherwise. They should send them to school regularly once they are on the school roll.

Parents/Carers and School as partners

If we work together to achieve good attendance, then this creates the best possible education for our children.

Parents/Carers can support this by:

• Ensuring their child attends every session that school is open.
• Ensuring their child arrives and is collected on time (8:40am and 3:10pm)
• When absence is unavoidable, a verbal or written message is provided on day one and then every day after this until the child returns to school.
• If there are difficulties with attendance, speak to Mrs Hatchman who will be able to support you with this and absences can be prevented.

School will support this by:

• Always providing the best educational opportunities for our children.
• Listening to and supporting all children and families.
• Opening school for every session that is safe to do so.

Attendance Rewards

We encourage all children to aspire to the target of 96% attendance during an academic year.  We have created the following reward system to encourage 100% attendance:

There is a weekly award for all children that achieve 96% or above that week.

The children will receive an Attendance Star which they will bring home.

Holidays / Leave of Absence

The current law does not give any entitlement to parents to take their child/children out of school during term time. The Education Regulations 2013 prohibits Headteachers from granting leave of absence to a pupil except where an application has been made in advance and the Headteacher considers that there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.

If parents take their child/children out of school during term time and the leave of absence is not authorised the Local Authority may issue penalty notices to each parent.