Attendance

At Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, we understand that sometimes it can be more difficult to get your children to school. We offer the following support network to help families:

• Daily Walking Bus around the local area to support families in enabling their children to come to school on time (Please contact the school office to book your child a place on the Walking Bus) TO REPORT AN ABSENCE ON THE WALKING BUS, CLICK: www.bit.ly/holycrossbus
• A phone call from the school office on the first day of absence
• Home visit from our Welfare and Attendance lead if your child’s absence lasts more then 3 days.
• Phone call/meetings with our Assistant Head if your child’s absence falls below 96% or you need support about your child’s absence.
• Attendance Panels if attendance falls below 90%
• Discuss any problems or difficulties with the school – staff are there to help and will be supportive.  Ms Brunt, our Family Liaison Officer, is the first point of contact.

If all these steps don’t help to improve your child’s attendance, the school may look to request a penalty notice from the local authority.

• Establish a good routine in the mornings and evenings so your child is prepared for the school day ahead.
• Make sure your child goes to school regularly and follows the school rules.
• Ensure your child arrives at school on time – not late.
• Arrange dental and medical appointments outside school hours when possible.
• Always inform the school if your child is absent due to illness – this should be followed up with a written note when your child returns to school.
• Take family holidays outside term time.
• Talk to your child about school and take an interest in their school work (including homework).

• Every week, we celebrate each class’ attendance in our celebration assembly.  The class with the highest attendance in KS1 and KS2 get a prize.
• In our shared area, there is a display that promotes good attendance and enables the children to track their class attendance score.
• Each week, children with 100% attendance receive a raffle ticket. They are then able to place this in our raffle box. At the end of the year, there will be two prize draws; this year, the prizes are bikes.
• Each week a class achieves 100% attendance, they will recieve a piece of their ‘Mr Potato Head’. Once their Mr Potato Head is full, they will get the choose a class treat.
• Bronze, silver and gold 100% attendance badges.
• £20 takeaway raffle drawn every 3 weeks.