Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
As a school we strive to work in partnership with parents and carers to promote high attendance of children. We expect children to attend school whenever they are fit and well. If a child is absent, we ask parents and carers to call us everyday that their child is absent, with the exception of absence for reasons linked to COVID 19 where we do not need to be notified of each day of absence during the isolation period.
Our Attendance Leads are Mrs. Mehan in the school office and Mrs. Magdeburg. Mrs. Mehan is responsible for following up on absence by telephone if we have not received a reason for absence. It is much appreciated if parents and carers can phone or email the school office before 8.35am every morning to provide reasons for absence. In line with Hertfordshire safeguarding procedures, if we can not contact parents to obtain a valid reason for absence, we refer a child to Children's Services for follow up. We work closely with the Attendance Improvement Service and refer children to them when we have attendance concerns.
We do not authorise any holidays for children of statutory school age and we contact all parents and carers who request absence for holidays to discuss their request.
As a school we retain the right to unauthorise absence if we do not receive a satisfactory reason for the absence.
Mrs. Magdeburg monitors attendance on a daily basis and contacts parents/carers of children with low attendance to arrange follow up meetings. We use the following approaches to support families where attendance is a concern:
We believe in the importance of recognising and rewarding good attendance at school. We appreciate that sometimes absence from school is unavoidable, therefore we acknowledge good attendance regularly and offer monthly, termly and yearly awards to maximise opportunities for children to receive a reward.
Each week the class with the highest attendance for the week receives the Attendance Cup and every member of the class receives a sticker. At the end of each month, every child with 100% attendance for that month is celebrated in assembly and receives a sticker. At the end of the term, all children with 100% attendance is celebrated in assembly, mentioned in the newsletter and receives a badge in assembly. At the end of the year, all children with 100% attendance for the year receive trophies to recognise this achievement.