Absence

At Ysgol Emmanuel we strive to achieve excellent attendance for all our pupils. This means that we expect our pupils to attend school everyday as long as they are fit and healthy enough to do so.  Attending school everyday ensures children do not fall behind with their school work which can often be distressing for them.  Good attendance also helps children build and maintain strong friendships. One of the ways we can work towards excellent attendance is by establishing strong home-school links.  Mrs Griffiths, Attendance and Welfare Officer is available to talk through any issues or concerns you may have.

Each pupil has an attendance percentage which is worked out by how many school sessions they attend. A percentage below 90% will mean your child will have missed a significant amount of school resulting in their academic performance being affected.

If your child is absent from school their absence will be classed as either authorised or unauthorised.  Examples of an authorised absence are:

• Medical/dental appointments (although we kindly ask that routine checkups be made outside of school hours if possible)
• Approved Sporting Activity
• Religious Observance
• Sickness

Other than in exceptional circumstances other absences will be unauthorised. The Attendance Officer will monitor unauthorised absences and follow the Denbighshire County Council attendance procedures as appropriate. 

Should your child be absent from school for any reason we kindly ask parents to:

• Contact school as soon as possible with the reason for absence.  You can send a text message or a Whatsapp message to the school absence messaging service on 07584383058 or leave a message on the absence line on 01745 353447 option 1.
• In the case of a medical appointment please bring the appointment letter into school for it to be authorised and coded correctly on the register.

Lateness

As a school we encourage excellent punctuality.  All pupils should be in their classroom ready for the day at 8.55am.  If they arrive after this time they will receive an L mark on the register.  If they arrive after registration closes at 9.30am they will receive a U code on the register.  This will mean your child has an unauthorised absence for the morning session.  Lateness is treated in the same way as poor attendance and can lead to warnings or fines from the council or involvement from the Educational Welfare Service.

There are many reasons schools encourage excellent punctuality.  Children who are late

• Often feel embarrassed walking into class alone
• Feel anxious about coming to school because they know they’re going to be late
• Miss carpet time where the introduction to the day is given and miss important instructions for the rest of the school day
• Miss out on lessons meaning they fall behind their classmates

Take a look at the table below which shows how persistent lateness can add up over the academic year and how much lesson time is missed as a result.

Equals days worth of teaching lost in a year 

Denbighshire County Council's Attendance at School Procedure can be found by following this link:

Denbighshire County Council Attendance Procedure