Regular attendance at school is essential to promote the education of all pupils. The school’s ethos demonstrates that children feel that their presence in school is important, that they are missed when they are absent or late. We are very proud of our high attendance levels at Holy Family which was significantly above both local and national levels at 96.8% for the academic year 2024 - 2025.

Holy Family staff and governors are united in their belief that regular school attendance enables children to maximise the educational opportunities available to them. Excellent attendance helps children to become emotionally resilient, confident and competent adults who are able to realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to their community; utilising their God-given talents.

Holy Family Catholic Primary School values all children. We work with families to identify the barriers to achieving and maintaining excellent attendance and offer the right services, at the right time, to resolve difficulties. The Headteacher (Mrs Munnik) and Attendance Officer (Mrs Rawlinson) monitor attendance weekly and use attendance data to identify any patterns of concern, whilst also celebrating success.

Attendance concerns will be raised with parents (when reasons are not known by the school, e.g. recovery from an operation). This information may also be shared with the Local Authority. Where we have concerns, or there is a lack of engagement from families to improve attendance, we will follow the school’s staged approach to improving attendance.

Holy Family’s staged approach is child-centred and prioritises support and developing strong working relationships with families. We will use the Early Help process to provide support prior to escalation and consider how we can work with families to enable children to access their right to education.

Attendance figures for each child will be reported to parents as part of the Parents’ Consultations and pupils’ Annual Reports. .

A Staged Approach

At Holy Family, we implement a staged approach to promote excellent attendance for every pupil. Our staged approach is underpinned by six principles:

1. Expect: a culture where all children can, and want, to be in school.
2. Monitor: analyse attendance data weekly to identify patterns of poor attendance or areas of concern.
3. Listen and Understand: working alongside parents to understand their barriers to attendance; work together to remove them.
4. Facilitate Support: empower parents by supporting them to access external support to overcome barriers outside of school.
5. Formalise Support: this could include formalising support.
6. Enforce: statutory intervention or prosecution to protect the child’s right to an education. This stage will only be implemented when all previous stages of the approach have been exhausted and there is no other option.

Absence from School

Parents should notify the school if their child is going to be absent.  For reasons other than sickness, absence can only be agreed by first seeking the Headteacher’s permission.  The most effective way to do this is to speak to the Headteacher. Standard forms 'Application for Exceptional Circumstances Absence' must also be completed for such requests, preferably after talking to the Headteacher. Forms should contain enough detail to allow a fair decision to be made, particularly if it is not possible to first hold a face to face meeting. Please refer to our 'Holidays in Term Time' Policy for further information.

If you require a permission for absence application form, please download a copy.