Attendance
At St. Edward’s Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School, we pride ourselves on our excellent attendance and punctuality figures. Good attendance is directly linked to increased progress and attainment.
Illness
If your child is ill please email attendance@sterf.org.uk, leave a message on the answer machine or call reception by 08.30am on the day of absence (this will be followed up by an email and/or phone call if contact isn't made to the school). These absences will be marked as illness. Please respond to any requests for reasons for absence, we need these for our records.
If your child has been ill due to vomiting NHS guidance advises that a pupil should stay away from school until they have not been sick for 2 days/48 hours.
If we do not hear from you, we will call or text to inform you that your child is not in school. Following recent tragic events in the news, we must be extra vigilant with our record keeping and attendance checks. Please ensure your contact numbers are kept up to date.
Please see our Attendance Process flow charts for more information.
Appointments / Exams / Visits
If you have to book appointments, music exams or visits, please try to avoid school hours. If this is not possible please fill in a term time absence form and email it to attendance@sterf.org.uk. Medical appointments do not need a form but you will need to give us as much notice as possible so staff can be made aware.
Holidays
The school strongly urges families to avoid booking holidays in term times, these will be marked as unauthorised in all cases and can impact your child’s progress.
Supporting Good Attendance
If the school's target of attendance falls below 96% the pupil will be monitored. If below 90% you will receive a warning letter. All pupils with attendance below 90% are known to the borough’s Educational Welfare Officer and they may wish to meet with pupils to discuss the importance of attendance and punctuality. If attendance doesn’t improve following letters or meetings you may face a fine or court action. This is decided by the borough in line with government guidelines.
The majority of our pupils have excellent attendance and we thank you for this.
If you feel your child needs more support with understanding the importance of attendance or punctuality we will happily do some work with them so do not hesitate to contact us.
The Psychology and Wellbeing Team at RBWM have produced a guide for parents about emotionally related school avoidance. You can access a copy of this guide below.
Emotionally Related School Avoidance Toolkit
