Attendance

There are clear links between high levels of attendance and high levels of attainment. West Town Primary Academy promotes and celebrates school attendance and expects all families to strive for their children to achieve 100% attendance. Parents are responsible for ensuring that their children attend school regularly and on time. 
This is a legal requirement. 

Absence from school 

Children must attend school unless it is absolutely unavoidable. If your child is absent from school, please contact the school office on 01733 852400 or office@westtownprimary.org between 8:00 and 8:40am. If we do not receive notification we will contact you to confirm the absence. Parents should be aware that absence is authorised at the discretion of the Headteacher and that notification of an absence does not authorise an absence. Absence may be authorised for the following reasons: 

• Medical, either through illness, dental or hospital appointments etc. 
• Religious observance by a religious body to which the child’s parents belong. 
• Exclusion by the school. 

If an absence does not fit into any of the above categories it will be registered as unauthorised and may incur a fine.  

Lateness 

We expect children to arrive at school at the following times so they are settled and ready to learn. 

The current school times are: 

• EYFS: 8.30am – 3.15pm 
• Year 1, 2 & 3: 8.30am -3.15pm 
• Year 4, 5 & 6: 8.30am – 3.15pm 

It is very important that the children arrive to school on time so that: 

1. They take part in all of the learning opportunities for the day with complete focus and without interruption from late arrivals. 
2. Teachers can teach the best possible lessons with complete focus and without interruption from late arrivals. 
   
   If children arrive after 9:00 they will be marked as unauthorised late; ‘U’ code.  A ‘U’ code means the student has incurred an unauthorised absence due having missed the legal registration period; legal action may be taken for continued unauthorised absences.

Family holidays

Family holidays are not permitted during term time unless in exceptional circumstances. The school does not support holidays during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances e.g. religious reasons.  

The Meridian Trust policy on attendance can be found here.

The academy term time absence request form for exceptional circumstances can be found in annex c of the trust attendance policy. Alternately, please use one of the following document (2 pages).

Attendance and support information can be found here.