Attendance & Working Together
Attendance & Working Together
🌟 HERO – Here Every day, Ready and On time
At Penwortham Primary School, our vision is “Happy children who achieve.” Regular attendance helps make this possible.
Being in school every day possible helps children learn, build friendships, develop confidence and feel part of our Penwortham family.
Our ambition is 96% attendance or above, while recognising that every child’s circumstances are different.
Attendance is everyone’s responsibility.
If attendance becomes difficult, we will work with children and families to understand the barriers and provide support early.
ASPIRE • BELONG • CARE • DISCOVER
Our Attendance Approach:
We don’t wait until attendance reaches 90% before offering help. We monitor attendance and patterns of absence carefully so that we can identify concerns and provide support as early as possible.
💙 Every Day Matters
Regular attendance helps children to:
Learn • Build friendships • Develop confidence • Belong • Achieve
Every day in school matters. Our aim is for children to attend every day they possibly can.
If Your Child Is Absent
Please contact the school office on the first morning of absence and tell us why your child will not be attending.
If we haven’t heard from you, we will contact you. Where we cannot establish a child’s whereabouts, or have concerns about their welfare, we may contact emergency contacts or undertake a home visit.
Knowing where our children are is an important part of safeguarding.
⏰ Punctuality Matters
Being Ready and On time is an important part of HERO.
Arriving late means children can miss important teaching and the calm start to the day.
Please make sure children arrive at school on time and are ready to begin their learning.
🤝 How We Can Help
Sometimes there are genuine barriers to attendance. These might include SEND, medical needs, anxiety, bereavement, friendships, housing, transport, financial pressures or family circumstances.
Please talk to us early.
Depending on your child’s individual needs, support could include:
listening to your child;
meeting with parents/carers;
reasonable adjustments;
SEND support;
an attendance support plan;
Early Help;
health or wellbeing support;
home visits;
support from Lancashire services.
Our approach is:
Listen → Understand the barrier → Agree support → Review → Celebrate improvement
SEND, Medical Needs & Attendance
We recognise that attendance may look different for some children.
If your child has SEND, medical or emotional wellbeing needs, we will work with you to understand the barriers and consider appropriate reasonable adjustments and support.
At Penwortham, high expectations and inclusion go hand in hand.
🏡 What Families Can Do
Be HERO: Here Every day, Ready and On time.
Please:
make attendance and punctuality a priority;
contact us promptly about absence;
arrange routine appointments outside school hours wherever possible;
avoid holidays during term time;
tell us early if something is making attendance difficult;
work with us when support is offered.
Don’t wait for us to contact you – we are here to help.
🏆 Celebrating Attendance & Belonging
We celebrate good and improving attendance, while recognising that some children face barriers outside their control. Our focus is not simply on perfect attendance. We want to recognise improvement, resilience and children overcoming barriers to be in school. Every child should feel that they belong at Penwortham.
Meet Our Attendance Team:
Senior Attendance Champions
Headteacher - Miss Kate Penarski
Mr Joe Noblet – Assistant Headteacher
SEND & Inclusion
Mrs Laura Barlow – Assistant Headteacher/SENDCo
School Office
Mrs Dearden- Your first point of contact for reporting absence and attendance queries.
Need help with attendance?
Please contact us. Early conversations make a difference.
🌟 HERO
HERE EVERY DAY • READY • ON TIME
Happy children who achieve.
ASPIRE • BELONG • CARE • DISCOVER