Attendance & Progress
Our school hours
At The Arbours Primary Academy your child needs to be in their classroom at 8:50am ready for registration.
Our compulsory school day starts at 9am and finishes at 3:30pm.
Total hours provided in a typical school week is 32.5 hours (incl. lunchtime).
Our breakfast club runs every morning from 8am and everyone is welcome. It is charged at £3 per child, per session, this can be booked on MCAS up to 3 days in advance.
Afterschool clubs run on specified days each week. Club dates, times and booking details will be advertised in our weekly school newsletter and by MCAS or email messages.
Our school is committed to promoting the welfare of your child through regular school attendance.
We know that every day lost to education can have a serious impact on your child’s attainment and overall progress in school.
We are therefore fully committed to promoting school attendance by providing an environment and ethos where children feel safe and can build positive relationships with their friends and classmates.
The children who are most happy and successful in school are those with the best attendance.
Academy attendance lead: Mrs Kerry Jefford
Absence line phone number: 01604 410242
Who can help: Mrs Jefford, Office Staff
We would like to thank our parents for their commitment to their child’s attendance.
The vast majority of parents ensure that their child attends regularly and on time, meeting our academy expectation of at least 97% attendance over the year.
Fortunately, we have very few parents who do not support their child in this.
We love to see the happy faces of the children as they get to school on time to play with their friends before sitting down together, ready to learn. Children who do not get to school on time or miss some days of school altogether find it more difficult to make friends and to catch up on their learning. Please remember that our school day starts promptly at 8:50am and children who are late miss the beginning of their reading session, an important skill for them to learn.
If your child is ill
We know that sometimes your child may be unable to attend because they feel unwell.
In this case please contact 01604 410242 and leave a message telling us your child’s name, class and reason for absence, preferably before 8:30am each day. Some parents think that their child may be better off at home if they are ill, but generally, we are happy to have them in school and will keep a close eye on them to make sure that they are ok if you ask us to. We have also produced a helpful leaflet to help you to decide whether your child is well enough to come to school which can be downloaded below. We use NHS guidance to advise and you can access this yourself by clicking here.
If we do not hear from you first thing in the morning and your child is not in school, then we will try and make contact with you as quickly as possible to ensure that your child is safe. This could be by text, telephone or home visit. Please rest assured that we always pursue this until we are satisfied so you know that your child’s welfare is important to us.
Other Reasons for Absence
The vast majority of our parents recognise that their children are most happy and successful in school when they attend regularly.
For that reason they do not ask for holidays during term time, because they know how damaging this can be for their child’s education. In the unlikely event that you want to ask for your child’s absence to be authorised due to an exceptional circumstance, then please ask to speak with the principal so that you can set out the special circumstances of your request.
If there is any other reason why you or your child is finding it difficult to attend school regularly and on time, then please do contact Mrs Jefford who can help. Mrs Jefford has already helped many other parents and children in this way. Seeking early help, no matter the issue, can help you to avoid any fines for non-attendance which can be very costly and embarrassing.