The School Day

All children enter the school via main school gate, the gate will open at 8.40am and close at 8.50am. 

Registers are taken at the start of the school day, children arriving after 9am must report to the office and will be marked as a late arrival.  The office will record the time of arrival and the reason for the lateness.

The school day ends 3.20pm, gates will open at 3.15pm for parents / carers to collect their children from the allocated area on the playground.  Teachers / TA’s are responsible for ensuring children leave with a parent / carer.  If your child will be collected by someone other than a parent / regular carer please contact the school office in advance to ensure the teacher can be made aware of arrangements for the end of the day.

Absence Procedure

When a child is unwell, parents are asked to email or telephone the school office before the start of the school day.

Parents are asked to follow NHS guidance regarding the length of time children should remain off school if they have an infectious illness.

Punctuality

Punctuality and attendance are two very important life skills.

When children arrive late, they miss out on essential instructions given at the beginning of the lesson.  Children often become upset because they have arrived 10 minutes late and missed the morning welcome and key phonics, reading or maths tasks.  Your child may also feel awkward arriving to the classroom when everyone else is settled.  Furthermore, when one child arrives late, it disrupts the entire class and the teacher - everyone’s learning is compromised.

Being regularly late, even by three minutes each day, can add up to nearly two hours of lost learning time in an average term; 15 minutes late each day equates to missing almost two weeks of school over an academic year.

On any occasion when your child has arrived so late that registration in the classroom has closed, this will be recorded as ‘Late after registers close’. This automatically appears on your child’s record as an unauthorised absence for the morning session and will follow them throughout their school career.  This is an indication of the seriousness with which the Department for Education regards this issue.

As we are legally responsible for the safety and welfare of every child, it is essential that we know the precise reasons for their absence.  You can leave a voice mail at the office or email the office at: office@freshford.bwmat.org as soon as you know your child will be absent.

Absence Requests

We encourage all children to come to school every day. We appreciate sometimes there are circumstances that mean some time off may be required. These situations should be discussed in advance with the Headteacher and will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. 

Term time holidays will always be unauthorised as absence from school will always affect your child's progress. 

The following documents may be useful to you when requesting an absence. 

For more information on attendance please visit www.bathnes.gov.uk and www.gov.uk