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Your child’s attendance at school is important to us.  We would like to emphasise that if you have any difficulties that prevent your child getting to school, we need to know as we can normally make arrangements to help. Our aim is that together we can offer the support your child needs to achieve 100% attendance, as many of our children here do. The Government’s target for good attendance is 96%; below 90% is deemed persistent absence. Sandhurst School is required by law to submit attendance statistics to Kent County Council (KCC) at the end of the academic year. KCC may pursue “persistent absence” with parents as it is a welfare concern. Clearly, we want to help you avoid being in this situation.

Throughout the year, we may contact parents when there is an attendance concern. This is so that we can establish the reason for absence to see if we can help with any on going problem. Please be reassured we are here to support you. However, if your child regularly misses school and their attendance rate is low we have a responsibility to inform the School Liaison Officer who will work with your family to ensure attendance is improved.

Having a higher than average attendance rate is one of our goals and its important to us because we can’t teach your child if they are not in school! However, we understand that young children do fall ill and there are times when they are too poorly to come to school and our attendance target for the children does allow for illness. If your child is ill and unable to attend school it is important that you contact the School Office before 9am to advise us of the reason for their absence and their expected date of return.

In addition to help us meet our attendance targets, we request that where possible parents arrange routine appointments such as dentist and opticians outside of school hours. We appreciate however that where children are booked under specialists at hospitals for short term or ongoing health concerns that these appointments may well fall in the school day and if this does happen we would ask that your child attends for part of the day if at all possible.

Family holidays and time off school during term time are not permitted unless in exceptional circumstances and the headteacher may instigate the Kent County Council’s penalty system if a child misses school due to absences which are unauthorised. The school’s term dates for the current academic year are available on our website to help families plan their holidays.

Attendance Ted and Punctuality Pup are awarded every Monday to the Classes with the best attendance and punctuality for the previous week. At the end of every term all children with 100 percent attendance will be awarded a VIP Bounce session.

At the end of last year I am delighted to announce – 7 Platinum, 13 Gold, 28 Silver and 24 Bronze medals were awarded.

Termly attendance certificates will once again be awarded to the children as follows:-

  • Bronze 97%
  • Silver 98%
  • Gold 99%
  • Platinum 100%

At the end of the school year medals will be awarded to children who have 100% attendance for the whole school year.

Attendance is important to us as we cannot teach your child if they are not in school. Of the 365 days in each year 190 are school days (52%) which leaves 175 (42%) non-school days to spend with family, have visits, take holidays and attend appointments.
We monitor and report attendance and award an Attendance Bear, to the class with the highest attendance rate each week. We also award certificates for personal attendance achievements for Bronze (97-98%), Silver (98-99%), Gold (99-99.9%) and Platinum (100%) standards termly. Children are invited for a “VIP Bounce” at the end of every term to celebrate 100% attendance. 100% Attendance medals are awarded to the children for the whole year.
The chart below shows the impact of missed days on children’s learning.


For our most up to date Attendance Policy, please use the link below
https://sandhurst.kent.sch.uk/attendance-policy/

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