Regular and punctual school attendance is important. Pupils need to attend school regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them by law. Holy Rosary Catholic Primary School fully recognises its responsibilities to ensure pupils are in school and on time.

Attendance
Regular attendance is vital if your child is to truly succeed and reach their true potential. We kindly request your support and encouragement to ensure your child attends school regularly and arrives on time. Regular attendance not only positively impacts your child's academic progress but also fosters a sense of responsibility and commitment. A child’s success at school is likely to be affected negatively if their attendance is poor. Those who do not attend regularly may fall behind in their learning, leading to
underachievement, both academically and socially.
 
To aid you in promoting good attendance, we want to assure you that Holy Rosary Catholic Primary School provides you with professional, quality information and advice. We will communicate with you through various channels such as telephone conversations, parents evenings, school reports, and our school attendance webpage. This will ensure that you stay informed about school attendance and have access to any resources or support that may be required.

Punctuality
The school day starts at 8.55am when all pupils should be in their classroom, in preparation for the register being taken.  
Being in school on time every day, ready to learn, is vital. Arriving on time allows your child to settle well and have the best start to their day. If your child arrives after 9.00am your child is late and has missed the start of the school day. Even being only a few minutes late can unsettle your child which is not the best start for their day and should be avoided wherever possible.
Attendance and punctuality are tracked throughout the year, and you will be informed of your child’s attendance and punctuality throughout the year at parents’ evenings.

How to report an absence
If your child cannot come to school because of illness, you should advise the school on the first day of absence by telephone 0151 288 6206 or if you are unable to get through, please use the answer phone facility. Simply state your child’s name, their class (if you know it) and the reason for their absence. If no message is received, we will contact you to find out the reason for absence, this is called First Day Response.

We ask families to make any medical appointments out of school hours wherever possible. However, if this is not possible, we can authorise absences for appointments on production of an official appointment letter.

Weekly Celebration Assembly
At our Friday celebration assembly, we award a certificate and a trophy to the class with the highest weekly attendance. This is to recognise the collective efforts made by the children in maintaining regular attendance. At the end of the school year, the class with the most weekly attendance awards are rewarded with a special treat for the entire class. This treat aims to celebrate their
exemplary attendance record and provide a fun activity for the class to enjoy together.

Termly Attendance Award
At the end of each term, at our Celebration assembly, we award prizes and certificates to those children who have 100% attendance and those who have good attendance, 96.7% (the target set by the government) and above.

School Career Attendance Award
At our end of year commendation assembly we celebrate the pupil from Y6 who has had the best attendance across their primary school career. The winning pupil receives a family voucher for the local cinema to treat their whole family. We recognise that excellent attendance at this level is a whole family effort and therefore recognise this with the reward. This is considered a very prestigious award to win with our Year 6 pupils!

Holiday requests
We do not authorise holidays in term time unless there is an exceptional circumstance. All holiday requests must be made by completing an application for leave of absence form which can be collected from the school office.