Attendance

The Importance of Regular Attendance

Regular attendance is vital to your child’s learning, wellbeing, and overall success here at Royles Brook. Every day in school counts - children who attend consistently build stronger friendships, develop better learning habits, and make good progress across the curriculum. Even a small number of absences can disrupt a child’s confidence and make it harder for them to keep up with new learning. By ensuring your child attends school every day and arrives on time, you are helping them build a positive routine and giving them the best possible start in their education.

To celebrate and promote excellent attendance at Royles Brook, we offer a range of motivating rewards that children love. Each week, the class with the highest attendance enjoys Milkshake Monday, starting their week with a tasty milkshake treat in recognition of their commitment to being in school. Every term, children also take part in our Royle Raffle - they earn a ticket for attending school each day and an extra ticket for arriving on time, giving them even more chances to win exciting prizes. At the end of each term, the class with the highest overall attendance receives a special whole‑class treat, which has included memorable experiences such as cinema afternoons and even a McDelivery. These initiatives help build positive routines, celebrate great attendance, and create a fun, supportive school culture where every day matters.

Our minimum expectation for attendance here at Royles Brook is set at 96%, however we are committed to ensuring that our pupils’ attendance is consistently above this figure. If you need support with attendance or are experiencing difficulties, please contact Mrs Lambert, our Family Support Worker, or the school office - we are here to help.

Absences

We appreciate that there are times when your child will be unable to attend school, e.g. due to illness. If your child is not able to be in school, then please report the absence using Dojo or by ringing the office on 01253 821396 as soon as possible on the morning of the absence. Please ensure that you leave a message as outlined above for EVERY day that your child is absent from school.

We understand that everyone is unwell from time to time and this is sometimes unavoidable but having time off regularly due to illness is a cause for concern. Having a cough, cold or being generally a bit unwell is not something that needs a day at home. For persistent absence due to illness, we may ask for medical evidence in the form of appointment confirmation or copies of prescriptions.

Where possible appointments such as medical, dental, optician appointments should be arranged outside of school time. If this is not possible, we expect your child to attend school before and after the appointment and we may ask for evidence of the appointment.

Punctuality

Being punctual is just as important as good attendance. When pupils arrive late, we find that they can start the day feeling more anxious and less engaged than they would if they had arrived on time. We ask for your support to ensure that your child is on time and is able to quickly settle in to their day so that they are not disadvantaged in any way.

The school day starts promptly at 8.45am and pupils are expected to be in class at this point. The school gates will all close at 8.45am and pupils arriving after this time will have to enter school via the school office. If a child arrives late to school but whilst the register is still open (before 9:15 am), they are marked as late (L on the attendance register). If a pupil arrives at school after the register has closed (after 9:15 am), without a satisfactory reason, this may be classed as an unauthorised absence (U code on the attendance register) and may lead to prosecution for not ensuring your child has regular school attendance.