At Beeston Primary, we understand the vital role that regular school attendance plays in your child’s learning, wellbeing, and future success. Good attendance is directly linked to higher achievement and helps children develop important life and work skills.
Attending school every day builds confidence, self-esteem, and social skills, while also ensuring children don’t miss out on valuable learning opportunities. Regular attendance is not only essential for academic progress, it is also a legal requirement.
Your Role as Parents and Carers
It is the responsibility of parents and carers to ensure that their child attends school regularly and arrives on time. We expect all pupils to aim for at least 96% attendance to make the most of their education.
We actively promote 100% attendance and celebrate it through various school initiatives. If your child’s attendance falls below 92%, you will be notified by letter so we can work together to improve it.
Appointments During School Hours
If your child has an emergency medical, dental, or hospital appointment during school hours, please inform the school office as soon as possible. Proof of the appointment will be required and can be emailed to:
We kindly ask that routine check-ups are scheduled outside of school hours to avoid disruption to your child’s learning.
Working Together
We ask all families to support our efforts by:
Ensuring your child attends school every day.
Arriving on time — the school day starts promptly at 8:50 am.
Communicating with us about any issues that may affect attendance.
Together, we can give every child the best chance to succeed.
What does an attendance percentage really mean?
| Attendance % | Absence per week/fortnight | Absence per year | Absence over 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 95% | 1/2 day fortnightly | 2 weeks | 1/4 year |
| 90% | 1/2 day weekly | 4 weeks | 1/2 year |
| 85% | 1 1/2 days fortnightly | 6 weeks | 3/4 year |
| 80% | 1 day weekly | 8 weeks | 1 year |
| 75% | 2 1/2 days fortnightly | 10 weeks | 1 1/4 year |
| 70% | 1 1/2 days weekly | 12 weeks | 1 1/2 year |
| 65% | 3 1/2 days fornightly | 14 weeks | 1 3/4 year |
| 60% | 2 days weekly | 16 weeks | 2 years |
| 55% | 4 1/2 days fortnightly | 18 weeks | 2 1/4 years |
| 50% | 2 1/2 days weekly | 20 weeks | 2 1/2 years |
Fast Track Attendance Monitoring
At our school, we are committed to promoting excellent attendance and punctuality. To support this, we use an attendance intervention called Fast Track.
Attendance FastTrack is a school and local authority initiative designed to improve pupil attendance and reduce persistent absence. It’s a supportive process that helps families understand the importance of regular school attendance and works with them to overcome any barriers.
What is Fast Track?
Fast Track is an early intervention initiative designed to improve school attendance. If a pupil has 10 unauthorised absence sessions (equivalent to 5 days) within a term, they will be placed on the Fast Track programme.
This initiative involves a partnership between the school, parents/carers, pupils, and the Local Authority. It sets out clear expectations for attendance and provides an 8-week period for improvement. If there is no improvement and legal responsibilities are not met, a penalty notice may be issued.
How We Support Families
Parents of pupils on Fast Track will be invited to regular meetings with our Attendance Team. These meetings are an opportunity to:
Discuss any challenges affecting attendance
Explore support options, including referrals to external agencies
Put strategies in place to help improve attendance
Offer tailored support for pupils with medical or other specific needs
Our goal is to work together with families to ensure every child attends school regularly and reaches their full potential.
Fast Track Leaflet for parents/carers
From 1 September 2013, schools are no longer allowed to authorise any requests for children to be taken out of school for a holiday during term time.
Requesting Leave of Absence
If you need to request time off for your child during term time, please complete our Leave of Absence Form. Paper copies are available from the school office on request.
Completed forms should be returned to the school office or emailed to: attendance@beestonprimary.org
Penalty Notices for Unauthorised Absence
From August 2024, the cost of a penalty notice for unauthorised absence from school is:
£80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days
£160 per parent, per child if paid between 22 and 28 days
These fines apply when a child has 10 or more unauthorised sessions (equivalent to 5 full school days) of absence. If a parent receives a second fine for the same child within a 3-year period, it will automatically be charged at the higher rate of £160.
Each parent can receive up to two fines per child within a 3-year period. After that, further action such as a Parenting Order or prosecution may be considered. For further information, please click on the link below:
Late Arrival at School
When your child arrives late at school, he/she misses the teacher’s instructions and the introduction to the lesson. Your child may also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late.
The table below shows the impact of arriving just a few minutes late can have on the amount of learning your child is missing. Every time a child arrives late for school it disrupts the whole class and they miss vital teacher input for the first lesson of the day. Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning lost, and can seriously disadvantage your child.
Our gates open at 8:40 am. School begins at 8:50 am.
Please help your child to be punctual.
| Minutes late per day during the school year | Teaching days lost per year |
|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 3.4 days |
| 10 minutes | 6.9 days |
| 15 minutes | 10.3 days |
| 20 minutes | 13.8 days |
| 30 minutes | 20.7 days |
Promoting Attendance and Support
We believe that working together with parents is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.
We have lots of high profile rewards and systems in school to promote good attendance and punctuality with the children.
The children are awarded daily points for attendance on our Pupil Rewards System. Each week we hold a class attendance competition to compete for the Attendance Trophy.
Attendance is celebrated in our Foundation Stage with our weekly ‘School Attendance Matters’ SAM Competition. Each week, all children in FS2 who have 100% attendance receive a reward sticker and are placed in a draw to win a Breakfast Hamper for home. The class with the highest attendance that week also get to take care of Sam the dog, our attendance soft toy mascot.
The Attendance Team in school are happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality; please contact Mrs Gahan or Mrs Singleton on 0113 2716978 (Option 1).
Beeston Primary School and Beeston, Cottingley and Middleton (BCM) Cluster Attendance Policies
