Our vision for every child at Grampound with Creed is to “Be the Light – Matthew 5:14” and we want every child to shine brightly in wisdom, knowledge and skills. As you will be aware, poor attendance or persistent lateness can be very disruptive to your child’s learning, as they may miss the first part of their lesson and can struggle to achieve their full potential to shine brightly as a result of this.
The school’s attendance expectations are as follows:
- We expect our children’s’ attendance to be at least 96%. Parents whose children are of compulsory school age and registered at school are responsible for ensuring that their children attend school regularly. Where the attendance of individuals cause concern, we will monitor this closely as we have a safeguarding duty to tackle this by working with parents and carers to remove barriers to poor attendance and punctuality. This may result in inviting you in for a meeting to discuss how we can support you and ensure improvements are made.
- Registration is at 8:45am. We are required to mark pupils who arrive after this time have to be marked as late. Please ensure your child arrives as close to 8:30am as possible to avoid this. We are obliged to record any unauthorised lateness. This is where your child has arrived at school after the registers have closed for the session.
- If you are reporting your child's absence, please call the school office before 8:30am on the morning of the day of absence. You will be asked to give information about the reason for being absent.
If your child is absent from school without authorisation, you will be committing an offence under the Education Act 1996. We may submit a request to Cornwall Council for a Penalty Notice to be issued, in accordance with Sections 444A and 444B of the said Act. Penalty Notices are issued per liable parent, per child and each carry a fine of £60 if paid within 21 days or £120 if paid after this but within 28 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice may result in legal action. Absence not authorised by school may result in a prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court under Section 444(1) or Section 444(1A) of the Education Act 1996, leading to a fine of up to £2,500 and /or custodial sentence. Cornwall Council may also apply for the costs incurred in taking the matter to Court.
‘Parents’ as set out in Section 576 of the Education Act 1996, defines parent to include: natural parents, whether they are married or not; any person or body who has parental responsibility for a child (as defined by the Children Act 1989) and; any person who, although not a natural parent, has care of a child, irrespective of what their relationship is with said child.