Attendance - Belmont School

Belmont School Attendance

As school, we have a really positive record of high attendance and we aim to keep improving on this. We believe that if pupils enjoy school and are well supported, then they will naturally want to attend.

We all know how important school is to our pupils, and attending regularly is a huge part of that! Children who come to school regularly are more likely;

To feel settled and safe
Maintain and build friendships
Progress with their learning, and master new skills

All of these things help to give our children a strong foundation, on which to grow and build their future!

School attendance – The Essentials

At Belmont we want our children to attend school every day, unless they are really not well enough to come in. However, we can only mark a pupil present if they are in school during the registration period.

The class register is taken twice a day, during the first part of the learning session. For our pupils this is: 8:40am – 9:10am and 1pm – 1:15pm

If a pupil arrives in school after registration has closed, they must come to reception and be signed in. A member of the reception team will then add a note to the register with the time that the pupil arrives.

Informing the School of an Absence

Reporting Absence

If your child is unable to attend school, please let us know before 9:00am on each day of absence. You can do this by:

Sending a message via Class Dojo to the attendance team
Calling the school office

We have a simple process that we have to follow if we don’t know why a pupil isn’t in school on any given day.

If your child is not in school at the end of the registration period, we will send you a do-jo informing you that they are absent and asking why
If we don’t receive a reply, we will then phone you.
If we are still unable to contact you, then we will phone the emergency contacts provided for your child.

We do this because we as a school have a duty of care to ensure that we know where all of our pupils are and that they are safe.

Facing challenges around attending school?

We’re here to help. If you or your child are facing issues or experiencing difficulties that may impact attendance, please talk to us. We want to work together with our families to understand any barriers to attendance they might be dealing with, and find ways we can help overcome them.

At Belmont, we take a support-first approach. If your child’s attendance does drop below 90%, we’ll reach out to explore how we can help. We are especially mindful of absences related to physical or mental health, or special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and are committed to working alongside families to offer appropriate help and support.

Term-Time Holidays

Government guidance means we can no longer authorise holidays during term time. Missing extended periods of school can significantly impact learning and make it harder for pupils to reintegrate.

However, we also understand that, due to their needs, our pupils often have very valid reasons that they can’t access holidays or special experiences during the school holidays.

For that reason, we have a leave of absence request form.

https://forms.office.com/e/7n65zHkTNB

Please use this form if you feel that there is an exceptional reason that your child needs to be absent from school.

Each request will be reviewed individually, by the senior leadership team and head teacher, who will make a decision as to whether we can authorise the time away from school or not.

Need Help or Have Questions?

You can always reach our attendance team through Class Dojo or by calling the school office. We’re here to support you and your child every step of the way.