Attendance and Punctuality
Good attendance is essential in order that pupils can make good progress and reach their full potential. There is clear evidence that good attendance and punctuality go hand in hand with educational progress and attainment. We know that on the whole, our families here at Ysgol Craig y Don make every effort to ensure that their children attend school regularly and punctually.
Absences due to illness are understandable and cannot be avoided but please make every effort to ensure that your child attends school regularly.
In the case of your child’s absence from school, contact the school on the first morning of the absence informing us of the nature of the absence and the likely duration.
School can be contacted BY PARENTS/GUARDIANS as follows by 9.30am –
Telephone 01492 878906 (if a member of staff does not answer the phone, please leave a message on the answerphone)
Text – if you are the Priority 1 parent on the Schoolcomms system (text and e-mail) you can text school on 01492233018 or if you have received a text message from school in the past, you can reply to the text.
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MOBILE PHONE OR CONTACT DETAILS RECENTLY, PLEASE LET THE SCHOOL KNOW IMMEDIATELY.
Our daily monitoring of the school’s attendance figures is a very useful tool for us in many ways. We can recognize patterns of absences and lateness, we can check if pupils are absent without reason and this monitoring enhances our child protection procedures. For example, if a child is absent in the morning without a message from a parent or guardian, then that is a cause for concern because we do not know where that child is. Therefore, every time your child is absent from school, you must contact the school and leave a message with a member of staff in the office or on the answering system by 9.30am. If we do not receive a message then we will contact you by text message asking for an explanation why your child is absent. If we do not receive a reply from the text message, we will telephone the contacts listed on the child’s records.
Our attendance figures are monitored by the Authority’s Education Social Work Service. Any regular patterns of absence or lateness, or if a child’s attendance dropped beneath 85%, are picked up by them and queried with us. In addition, regular lateness will also be queried.
If you do bring your child to school late, as is occasionally inevitable, please report to reception and your child will be registered there.
Punctuality is essential as lateness has a negative impact on a child’s learning and the rest of the class as a whole. Teaching and Learning time begins at 9am prompt.
We monitor attendance and punctuality very carefully and will liaise with Conwy’s Education Welfare Services if a pattern of absences or lateness causes concern. Parents/guardians must bring late children to school via the main reception.
Leave of Absence form/Holidays. We encourage everyone to organise family holidays during school holidays. A list of school holiday dates is available on the Conwy County Borough Council website at www.conwy.gov.uk.
Holiday/Absence forms are available from the school office or alternatively can be downloaded below.Parents Leave of Absence Form