Attendance

Attendance is extremely important at Green Meadow Primary School. Your child is our top priority and they must be in school to learn if they are to achieve their full potential. We aim to have a whole school yearly attendance of at least 97%.

When a child is absent from school, they miss valuable learning opportunities which will have a knock-on effect on their education as a whole. Children who miss time off school do not achieve as well as their peers. Not only do they miss the lessons, they also miss out on social aspects of school life, including making and maintaining friendships.

We will not authorise family holidays, and these will be marked as unauthorised absence on your child's register. Please remember that rainy days, going shopping, visiting family, birthdays during the week and not wanting to go to school, are not acceptable reasons to be absent and will be recorded as unauthorised. If you are concerned that your child does not want to come to school, please talk a member of staff. 

• Our Attendance Culture at Green Meadow Primary School.
  • Our school values are READY, RESPECTFUL and SAFE. Good school attendance links to these values in the following ways,

READY- children who are in school on time everyday are READY to learn.

RESPECTFUL- being on time and showing commitment by attending everyday are life skills children will need throughout their school time and into their career.

SAFE- poor school attendance is a safeguarding concern. School has a duty of care to know where children are during school hours. If you do not contact school and follow attendance procedures so we know your children are SAFE, school may need to follow safeguarding procedures.

• • Links to community work

Green Meadow works with a number of partners to support families where school attendance and punctuality is an issue. WE CAN AND WANT TO HELP YOU! If you need help, please contact our Pastoral Team on 0121 475 4505.

• • Links to the curriculum offer

Green Meadow has a curriculum rooted in four main curriculum drivers- Aspiration, Communication, Awareness and Enquiry. School attendance and punctuality are vital in each of these areas to help children achieve their very best.

Aspiration- children who attend school on time everyday can aspire to the brightest of futures!

Communication- children who attend school on time everyday are able to take full advantage of our award- winning Oracy curriculum giving them the very best prospects for the future!

Awareness- children who attend school on time everyday are able to fully immerse themselves in our No Outsiders approach, making them valuable citizens of the future!

Enquiry- children who attend school on time everyday develop enquiring minds, taking them on a journey of lifelong learning!

• • Our school targets

This year our whole school targets are ambitious as we want the very best school experience for all pupils!

Whole school attendance- 97%

Persistent absence (children who attend less than 90% of the time)- reduced to below 10%

The Impact of Non-Attendance

We cannot stress enough how vitally important good attendance is in ensuring your child makes good progress. If they are regularly late or missing days on a regular basis, this leads to the child falling behind in their learning.

• Our Attendance Process.
  • Time of AM/PM registers

Registers are taken every day at 8.55am and 1.15pm. We open the school gates at 8.35am so children have plenty of time to be in class on time everyday.

• • First day calls

We ask parents to call the school office on 0121 475 4505 between 8 and 8.30am to let us know if your child is too ill to attend school that day. Parents must call school on each day of absence. Please expect some friendly challenge about the reasons for absence- we only want the very best for your children and we believe that means attending school every day that they are able to! If we do not hear from you, we will contact you throughout the day until we are able to speak to you. If we cannot get hold of you, we will follow safeguarding procedures.

• • Punctuality expectations

Children are late for school if they arrive on site after 8.55am. Between 8.55 and 9.25am children are  marked with  an L-code on the register. This means they are late and we will contact you about the possible consequences for parents who bring their children to school late. If your child arrives after 9.25am, they are marked with a U-code. This is much more serious as it means they lose the morning mark for that day and this then contributes to their overall absence percentage. There are more serious consequences for parents who persistently bring their children to school late after the register has closed, including fines from Birmingham City Council.

• • Home visits

If you do not phone us to tell us about our child’s absence from school and we cannot get hold of you on the phone when your child has not arrived at school on time we will carry out home visits to ensure your child is safe. For children identified as vulnerable this will be on the first day of absence, for all other pupils this will be on the third day of absence.

• • Our Attendance Team

School attendance and punctuality is everyone’s responsibility. We have a dedicated team to lead the drive to ensure attendance is a key priority.

Senior Attendance Champion- Kate Cross

Pastoral manager- Claire Robinson

Attendance team members- Deb Calder, Shams Al Omeri

• • How we monitor attendance 

Attendance is monitored on a daily, weekly, monthly and half termly basis.

Daily- we take a register twice a day to monitor daily attendance. Through first day calling, we ensure we know where all children are everyday. We monitor all pupils and specific groups by tracking their attendance on a daily basis.

Weekly- every week we produce an attendance monitoring and an attendance concern list. We monitor attendance of pupils who have attendance between 90 and 95%. Attendance becomes a serious concern when it falls below 90%. Pupils with attendance below 90% are classes as persistent absentees. When attendance falls below 50% pupils are classed as severely absent. School staff will contact parents directly if their child’s attendance falls below 95%.

Monthly- on a monthly basis we compare attendance of all pupils to the previous month. We celebrate improving attendance and monitor falling attendance. You may receive a letter from Birmingham LA regarding persistent or severe absence or poor punctuality. You may be invited to attend a meeting at school to discuss your child’s poor attendance and you will be asked to enter into an Attendance Contract. This will then be closely monitored.

Half Termly- we build a picture of attendance for all pupils and specific groups. We meet with the Local Authority for a Targeted Attendance Support Meeting (TSM). This provides external challenge to school and gives a clear picture of areas of celebration and next steps for improvement.

• • Parental responsibilities 

It is parents' legal responsibility to ensure their children receive appropriate education. Failing to send your child to school regularly without good reason is a criminal offence. Good attendance is a parental responsibility- the children rely on you to get them to school each day. With parental support we know that we can reach and exceed our target of 97%, ensuring that all children achieve and excel during their time at Green Meadow Primary School.

• Rewards. 
  • Individual- collecting Parker paw prints for great attendance and punctuality mean children get special time with our beloved school dog, Parker
  • Family- monthly Aldi voucher raffle for a family where attendance is improving or is 100%
  • Class based- KS2 attendance league table- classes ‘play’ each other in a football-style league table, in EYFS and KS1 Tickus and Markus (our attendance and punctuality teddies) visit the best attending and most punctual class
  • Parents can support success in achieving these rewards by bringing children to school on time, everyday.
• Safeguarding and Attendance.

Children with attendance of 90% or below are referred to as Persistent Absentees. Children whose attendance falls below an acceptable level will be referred to our pastoral team who will issue a letter to the family about next steps. Please remember that we are here to help your child to learn. At every stage our aim is to provide support to families and children so that children can attend school. Green Meadow Primary School offer extensive early help, in line with Birmingham City Council's 'Right Service, Right Time' framework. If there is a genuine problem in getting your children to school, let us know and we will do all we can to help without judgement. Children who continue to miss school after this with become part of a programme which is co-ordinated by Birmingham Education Legal Intervention Team. This procedure, which aims to ensure children are in school, can lead to court proceedings for parents / carers. Punctuality is also very important. Children who are late will lose out on their learning. The school will contact parents of children who are persistently late.

• • Poor attendance and punctuality is a safeguarding concern. School will follow safeguarding procedures to refer cases of ongoing persistent and severe absence to Birmingham Children’s Trust via a ‘Request for Support’ referral in line with ‘Right Help, Right Time’.
  • Home visits- If you do not phone us to tell us about our child’s absence from school and we cannot get hold of you on the phone when your child has not arrived at school on time we will carry out home visits to ensure your child is safe. For children identified as vulnerable this will be on the first day of absence, for all other pupils this will be on the third day of absence.
  • Information sharing with the LA, local schools and outside agencies- if school have concerns about punctuality and attendance, we may contact the schools of siblings to share information. Where children have an allocated social worker or family support worker, school regularly share information about attendance and punctuality. This may be on a daily basis where poor school attendance and punctuality is considered a safeguarding risk.
• Documentation and links:
  • School policy Attendance-Policy-2025-Green-Meadow-v2.pdf
  • LA guidance document and process School attendance, advice for parents | School attendance, advice for parents | Birmingham City Council
  • DfE guide Working Together to Improve School Attendance Working together to improve school attendance: July 2026
  • Leave of absence requests School attendance and absence: Overview - GOV.UK
  • NHS ‘Is my child too ill for school?’ Guidance Is my child too ill for school? - NHS

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