Attendance Concern Letters5 December 2019 (by admin) |
Please read the following message from the school's headteacher, in regards to the attendance concern letters that you may have received this week.
Dear Parents/Carers,
This week a number of families may have received, or will receive from the school, an initial attendance concern letter. This is a legally required letter, written by the local authority, for the school to use if it is to follow protocols as outlined in the school's attendance policy. This policy is designed by the local authority also, and our governing board has ratified it to be used by the school - to ensure the school is carrying out it's legal duty of monitoring pupils' attendance. For this reason, both the policy and letter sent home have not been altered by the school, to ensure a consistent message is sent to any family who has a child attending an Essex maintained school.
We understand that you may not like receiving such a letter, and valid reasons may have already been given to the school for your child's missing attendance - however, the school must follow the adopted policy guidelines and notify you either way, once your child reaches an attendance rate below 96%.
In the spring term, a following letter will be sent to families, if the attendance rate has not improved - requesting a meeting with the school's attendance team and local authority representatives. Once again this is in line with expectations of the school in following the attendance policy.
I hope this message informs parents who may have taken offence, or felt anxious, from receiving the letter - but this must be done so that the school can eventually take legal action against parents who are found to be unlawfully placing their child in a position of missing education that they are entitled to. As the Headteacher of the school, I am responsible for the safeguarding of your children during school time, and this includes being confident that in a period of absence, I am satisfied that they are safe.
I thank you for reading this message, and please understand we are doing all we can to ensure our children of Coopersale are safe at all times and getting the education they deserve.
Mr Bateman (Headteacher)