At Tower Road Academy, we place great importance on good attendance and punctuality.  We know that a child’s attendance has a direct impact on their learning. Research shows that those children who are regularly absent from school and regularly late do not achieve their potential and there are gaps in their learning.

Please support the school in this by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives ready to learn and on time at 8.40am.

Nationally, primary pupil attendance is around 96%. This means that a child needs to attend school for at least 177 out of 190 days (no more than 7 days absence across the whole year) to meet national expectations.

Every half-day absence from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

See the School Performance Comparison website for information on our school’s absence figures.

Authorised Absences

These are mornings or afternoons away from school for a valid reason such as illness, emergency medical or dental appointments (routine appointments should always be made out of school hours) and emergencies.

Unauthorised Absences

An absence is classified as 'unauthorised' if the reason was not recognised as acceptable. The Department for Education (DfE) and Local Education Authorities provide information for schools as to what is acceptable and what is not.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

• A birthday
• A shopping trip
• Day trips
• Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances

Promoting Attendance and Support

We believe that working together with parents/carers is the best way to result in positive attendance outcomes for our children.

The importance of attendance is high-profile in school to promote good attendance and punctuality with the children.  We have a class attendance competition and the top five classes are announced each week in Class Champs assembly.  The top two classes for attendance each term are rewarded with, for example, a bouncy castle and movie afternoon . 

Our Attendance Lead, Miss Ward, is always happy to work with both children and families to improve attendance and punctuality. Come and talk to us if you are having problems.

Attendance Monitoring

As attendance and punctuality is so important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance, or if pupils are regularly late to school.

Lincolnshire County Council is keen that we adopt measures and involve external agencies if the level of attendance requires us to do so. Attendance is monitored half-termly and letters are sent to all parents/carers where attendance is falling below 90%.

Please see our Attendance Policy for further information.