Belmont Primary School recognises that positive behaviour and good attendance are essential in order to raise standards of pupil attainment and to give every child/young person the best educational experience possible. We are committed to meeting our obligation with regards to school attendance through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:

• Promoting good attendance

• Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence

• Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled

• Acting early to address patterns of absence

• Building strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support in place to attend school

We also promote and support punctuality in attending lessons.

Missing even a small number of days can have a lasting effect on your child's progress and understanding in lessons. As the graph (produced by the DfE) below shows, by the end of Year 6, under half of the children who have attendance of under 90% achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

In the event of your child being ill and not able to attend school, please either phone 01283 217782 and leave a message by 9.00am ensuring you state your child’s name, class and reason for absence. Alternatively, email info@belmont.derbyshire.sch.uk with the required information.

We must account for all absences. Any unauthorised absences are monitored and within the new guidance from the Department of Education a fixed term penalty notice can be issued when there are 10+ absences over a 10 week period.

Please ensure you arrive on time as a late mark can also count as an unauthorised absence, which can result in a fixed term penalty notice if unauthorised absences are accrued.

Please note, holiday are not permitted during school time and in line with guidance, may result in a fixed penalty notice.

Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

In line with Public Health guidance, if your child has a sickness / tummy bug, they must be off school 48 hours after their last episode of vomiting/ diarrhoea.

Where possible, organise medical appointments after the school day.

Where attendance raises concerns or there are issues with punctuality, our learning mentors will support families.

Our school attendance policy can be found here.

If you would like any support with attendance, please contact the school office.