Attendance
Every child at St Joseph’s should be aiming at 100% attendance. You, as their parents must encourage your child and support the school in their endeavours to achieve this. For a child to reach his or her full potential it is vital that regular and punctual attendance is attained.
If your child is too ill to attend school, you should notify us by 9.15 am either by phone or email (office@stjosephs.barnet.sch.uk) on the first day of absence. If you do not provide a valid reason for your child’s absence, it will not be authorised.
If your child is slightly unwell, please send them to school. In our experience, most ailments such as coughs and colds tend to ease off as the day progresses, especially when the child is in the company of their friends. However, should this not be the case we have qualified first aiders to contact you if we feel there is a need to send your child home.
If your son/daughter is absent from school for three days or more we will require medical evidence, such as a doctor’s prescription or an appointment slip from your family GP.
Routine medical and dental appointments should be made for out of school hours. If it should become absolutely necessary for your child to be absent for part of the day to attend such an appointment, the school should receive notification of this at least a day in advance (except in cases of emergency).
No absence during term time
School holiday dates are given months in advance. Special leave will be authorised only in ‘highly exceptional circumstances’, i.e. serious illness/funerals. Children’s absences before and after a school holiday period will be taken extremely seriously and evidence for the reason of the absence will be required. Please make sure that family celebrations (i.e. communions, weddings, baptisms) are planned for holiday times only as children will not be allowed to be absent. Children must not be taken out of school to receive medical treatment abroad. The table below show how just a few days absence can result in your child missing a significant number of lessons, which hinders their learning:
| Attendance during year | Days absent | Number of lessons missed |
| 95% | 8 days | 40 lessons |
| 94% | 10 days | 50 lessons |
| 90% | 19 days | 100 lessons |
| 85% | 29 days | 150 lessons |
| 80% | 38 days | 200 lessons |
Please note that your child may lose his/her place in the school if attendance is unsatisfactory.
Punctuality
5 minutes late every day means missing 3 days of school every year
The doors open at 8.30 am and the children must be in class by 8.50 am when the register is taken. Pupils arriving after this time are recorded as ‘late’ and any pupil arriving after the register closes is marked ‘absent’. Persistent lateness may trigger investigation by the School’s Education Social Worker.