Attendance
St Anne’s and St Joseph’s is a successful school and every child plays their part in making it so. We encourage all pupils to achieve their potential and attendance at school every day will help achieve this.
For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly and every child should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless they have an unavoidable reason.
Regular school attendance is very important so that children are given as much opportunity as possible to develop academically and socially. Research has shown regular attendance is important in ensuring your child has the best chance to succeed academically and socially.
At St Anne’s and St Joseph’s we will do all we can to work with families to ensure children are in school learning.
We monitor attendance regularly to support parents in improving their child's attendance and implement early interventions and strategies to prevent attendance levels falling. We use a number of procedures and interventions to support parents but in the first instance we rely on parents informing us of any attendance problems at an early stage, to work with us to resolve these; this is nearly always successful.
Procedure for reporting absence
Please contact school by 9.00am if your child is going to absent or late.
This can be done in a number of ways:
Call the school on 01254 233019 and leave a message on the absence line or speak to a member of the office staff.
Leave an absence message via your Parentmail account.
Send an email message to j.grimshaw@sasj.lancs.sch.uk
You must call/leave a message EVERY DAY that your child is absent unless the reason is for sickness/diarrhoea, which automatically means your child will need to remain off for 48 hours from the last episode.
Children must be class at 8.55am, when the school gates close. Any children arriving after this time will be required to report to the school office and be signed in and will be classed as being late.
If we do not hear from you and your child does not arrive in school, our School Business Support Officer will contact you.
It is essential that we have up to date contact information as this would be considered a safeguarding concern if we do not have 2 known contact numbers, so if you change your mobile number, PLEASE LET THE OFFICE KNOW straight away and we will update our information.
Leave of Absence Request
By law, maintained schools cannot authorise any leave in term time other than in exceptional circumstances. Taking a child out of school in term time will affect their education and progress as much as any other absence.
If leave is being requested for a holiday or extended leave abroad, approval should be obtained from the Headteacher before making any bookings.
Parents/Carers who need to request leave for their child during term time should complete an application form, available from the school office or printed from the attachment below as soon as possible for consideration by the Headteacher. On occasions the school may request a meeting with parents but all requests will be advised in writing, whether the absence is authorised or not. Please be aware that In accordance with the Lancashire code of conduct, we may request that the local authority issue penalty notices for unauthorised absence.
From the 19th August 2024, the Department for Education announced national changes to penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence in term time. You can be issued with a penalty notice if your child is absent from school and school have not authorised the absence. This could be because you have taken your child out of school for a holiday or because your child is absent from school for reasons which the school do not feel are appropriate.
See attached sheet below for more information.
