Attendance and Safeguarding at English Martyrs

Attendance and Safeguarding both have great importance at English Martyrs. We want to keep your children safe in school and to do this we look at Safeguarding along with attendance. These are monitored on a regular basis.

It is the school’s statutory duty to monitor attendance. Not only can regular absence, particularly unexplained absence, be a red flag for safeguarding issues, but only when children are in school can they talk to staff and be given support for any pastoral and safeguarding problems. Furthermore, as has been widely seen and discussed in recent months, ‘Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school.’ (Extract from p. 5 of School Attendance: Guidance for Schools).

Any absences, including medical appoints should be taken out of school time where possible. If this is not the case, then an absence request form must be completed in advance of the absence (no matter how short) and as soon as you are made aware of the appointment. We must see a copy of the appointment made for the child’s absence. Absence forms can be downloaded from our school website under parent information, policies and documents.