Behaviour and Attendance

Behaviour

At Shiremoor Primary School we are preparing children for their futures. This means that they must have respect for themselves and others, be able to get along with other people and responsibly resolve any differences. They need to also understand that there is a requirement for rules and laws and the benefits to everyone for these being followed. We have very high expectations of children and instil in them that behaving makes them feel far better in themselves. Our strategy is a very proactive one and staff are well-trained in our whole school approach.

We do have a whole school reward system to congratulate those children who behave consistently well and this has to be tightly managed to ensure the bar is high. In the Autumn Term children aim for Bronze Award, Silver in Spring and Gold in Summer. Please see further information under ‘Celebrations’.

The School Rules

It is important that you know and keep the school rules.

1. We keep hands and feet and other undesirable objects to ourselves.

2. Quiet voices - we do no shout or use bad language.

3. We are always in the right place at the right time.

4. We follow helpers and teacher instructions.

5. We follow the rules of each area.

6. We care for the school environment

Attendance

Attendance at school is a legal requirement and research has also proven that children who attend school regularly have better future prospects. We expect children to attend school for a minimum of 95% of the time.

We work along side Clennell Education Solutions, who are a company that provide support for schools and education establishments for all their behaviour and safety needs.

We follow the Local Authority model on supporting attendance and this will include the following:

• If your child's attendance falls below 96%, you will receive an email informing you of this and give you the opportunity to speak to school if you feel you need support with your child's attendance.
• If your child's attendance falls below 92%, you will receive an invite to an attendance meeting. This is to allow school and parents to work out how best to support improved attendance.
• If you fail to attend the meeting or your child's attendance continues to decline, a second meeting will be arranged.
• If you fail to attend the second meeting, an Early Help Assessment (EHA) will be arranged. 
• If the EHA fails to help with the attendance concerns or you fail to engage with school around the attendance concerns, you will be referred to the Local Authority for more formal action.

Daily Attendance Procedures

We expect parents to communicate with us around absence. If your child is going to be absent from school, you must inform the office before 9am. Where no communication has been received, we consider absence to be a safeguarding matter. It is important that we have as much detail surrounding a child's absence and therefore staff are likely to contact parents for more details.

• Attendance is recorded each morning at 9am.
• The attendance team then check the absences against messages received.
• If there has not been a reason provided for a child's absence, we will attempt to phone or email the first contact for the child.
• If we are unable to get in touch with the first contact, we will try all alternative contacts we have for that child.
• If we are still unable to contact the family, this will be treated as a safeguarding matter.
• For those children whose attendance is below 92% or those who we deem to be a safeguarding concern, school staff or our safeguarding partners, Clennell Education Solutions, may make home visits and will have to consider the involvement of other outside agencies.

Good attendance is rewarded with Bronze, Silver and Gold Attendance Awards.

Please see our policies for Behaviour and Attendance.

School absence in relation to family holidays

As a result of a change in guidance to schools, pupil’s absence in relation to family holidays during term time must now be recorded as unauthorised absence.

The schools Governing Body have decided that following these guidelines we will not be able to authorise annual holiday absence unless there are very particular family circumstances e.g. when the well being of the family is dependant on such leave being granted following a tragedy or recuperation after serious illness.

If you choose to take your family holiday during term time, without a very particular family circumstance, the absence will be unauthorised and referred to the Education Welfare Service.  You may be liable to a fixed penalty fine issued by the Education Welfare Service.  You will be fined if you take your child out of school during the SAT’s week.

If you require more information on this matter please contact Mrs Quinn in the school office.