Greenmount Primary has a very good attendance record mainly due to the fact that we have a significant number of children who have 100% attendance. Other children are only absent from school if they are very poorly.  

Absence from school is only expected to be for illness of the child or other exceptional circumstances.  Under new regulations from September 2013, absence for holidays cannot be authorised and penalty notices may be issued by the Local Authority if parents take their children out of school for family holidays.  If you feel that you have other exceptional circumstances please put your request in writing to the head teacher, at least 10 days before the proposed absence.

We do understand that all children are poorly at some time and that rates of attendance fluctuate. As part of our management of absence we try to avoid significant absence problems by involving parents if their child’s attendance falls below 90% by writing to them to keep them updated.

• If attendance should not improve or falls below 85% we need to discuss with parents the reasons for this and any possible solutions to the problem.
• If attendance at school continues to be a problem a referral to the Local Authority’s School Attendance Team will be made. This can result in fines being imposed on parents. (Fortunately this is a rare occurrence).

If your child is poorly and unable to attend school:

• Please phone into school on the first day of absence before 9.00 a.m. in the morning - you can leave a message on the answerphone (Option 1).  Please do not use the Class Dojo messaging service to inform us of absences.
• If your child’s illness is continuing, please keep us informed. We do need to know the nature of their illness.
• If you think your child can manage school please leave a contact number for that day where you can be sure that we can reach you. Often they do need to come home and we don’t have either the appropriate space or staffing levels to look after a sick child. We will monitor them but are unable to sit with them unless they are dangerously poorly or injured. They are much happier at home tucked up in bed with some TLC.