Attendance and Absence
At Thameside Primary School, we believe that attending school regularly and arriving on time, is vitally important to your child’s future. If your child is absent from school, they will miss learning opportunities as well as valuable time to develop positive relationships. National research has shown that children who miss school frequently will fall behind with their learning, which has a negative impact on achievement as well as leading to poor social skills and friendship issues.
At Thameside, we firmly believe the foundation of securing good attendance is that our school is a calm, safe, nurturing and supportive environment where all pupils want to be and are ready to learn.
Attendance is everyone's responsibility and we believe that every student should strive to, and be nurtured to, achieve 100% attendance. Robust systems are in place to support families and children in achieving this goal. We celebrate our students for outstanding attendance in a number of ways, to support all children to meet their potential and prepare our students for life beyond school.
Our Safeguarding and Inclusion Lead and Home School Link worker closely monitor student attendance, work collaboratively with families and implement our systems to ensure that attendance is a core focus of our school.
Our attendance policY
Our policy and procedures to support positive attendance and punctuality can be found at the bottom of this page and in our policies section.
A useful guide to support parents can also be found at the bottom of the page. Regular updates and support linked to attendance, can be found in 'Thameside in Touch'.
We celebrate classes' attendance in our weekly celebration assembly and via our communal displays in school to ensure that attendance has a high profile.
Please also take a look at the following leaflet which provides support and guidance for parents of children in the Early Years:
Parents and Carers guide - Attendance in Early Years
Reporting Absence
It is important that if your child is absent from school their absence is reported to the office as soon as possible, either by telephoning 01235 527600 or by email office.2598@thameside.vale-academy.org. If we have not had any contact to explain your child’s absence, we will contact you to find out the reason. When your child returns to school, please send in written confirmation of the dates that they were absent and the reason for their absence.
Lateness
Our classroom doors are closed for registration at 8.50am. After this time children will need to come into school via the front office to be signed in.
We encourage excellent punctuality via our weekly raffle; which we celebrate in our weekly assemblies.
Medical Appointments
Where possible, medical appointments should be made out of school hours; however if your child does have to attend an appointment during the school day, please inform the School Office and provide written confirmation of the appointment to the office.
USEFUL LINKS:
A parent’s guide to keeping kids healthy this school year - UK Health Security Agency (blog.gov.uk)