Punctuality and Attendance
The School Day
Arrival at school
Reception September 2025
The field gate, Factory Lane, will be open for your arrival. Parents and children then walk across the playground and up the slope to the Reception gate. Staff will come out at 8:45am to receive children at this gate.
At the end of the day, the Factory Lane field gate will be opened at 3pm. Parents and carers should wait at the Reception Class gate and children will be handed pack to parents and carers at 3:15pm.
Year 1-6 From September 2025
The main school gate on the A6 opens at 8:40am and staff are on duty to supervise arrival from 8:40am. We recommend that all children are in school by 8:55am as the children can then be settled and organised ready for registration at 9:05am (the official school start time). Please 'kiss and go' to enable more parents to park and drop. Our staff kindly agree to looking after children during this period before school to support parents in parking quickly getting off to start their day.
Children make their way into school and organise themselves in the cloakroom. During this drop off period there are settling tasks and sctivities in class so no child will miss direct teaching during this time. Please avoid arriving before 8:40am, when the gates are opened, and queuing along the fence.
It is anticiapted that all children in Y1- Y6 will be in by 8:55am to settle prior to the start of the school session at 9:05am
The school day ends for Reception children at 3:15pm and the rest of the main school at 3:20pm.
Unlike other school's, we have a shorter lunch break of 45 minutes so that we can end the school day slightly earlier. This enables us to run clubs and attend competitions with other schools after school particularly in the darker Autumn term.
| Gates unlocked | 8:40am |
| Recommended time to be in school by | 8:55am |
| Registration/Official start of the school day | 9:05am |
| End of the school day |
Reception 3:15pm Y1-6 3:20pm |
The Pre-school day
Children in Little Whittle Pre-school attend with a variety of sessions.
Basic sessions run from 8:55am-11:55am and 12:25pm-3:25pm. Wrap around care extends sessions from 7:45am-6pm. Children arrive via the field gate with parents and they should be brought to the Pre-school building. At the end of sessions parents collect children from the Pre-school building.
Good Attendance
Changes to how schools manage attendance
The changes come into effect on 19th August 2024
Important Update – Changes to Education-related Penalty Notices
Information for Parents
You may be aware that the Department for Education has recently announced national changes to penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence in term time. These changes will come into effect on 19 August 2024.
The governing Board of this school has previously decided not to issue penalty notices to any parents for unauthorised absence. From 19th August, governing boards cannot take this stance.
If parents/children meet the thresholds from September onwards, our governing board is in the position of needing to issue penalty notices.
It has been very rare over the years for holiday requests to be granted as ‘authorised’. Rarely do the reasons given by parents meet the threshold for extenuating circumstance. Going forward holiday/absence forms must be completed and handed into the office. If a family considers their circumstances to be extenuating, then they should speak to Mrs Metcalfe or Mrs Haughin before booking holidays in term time if there is a chance to avoid penalty notices being issued. Governors have agreed that in order for staff to agree that circumstances are extenuating and authorise a holiday absence a panel of the Governing Board must agree the decision.
School leaders have been instructed that if there is a suspicion that families are on holiday when they say children are ill, home visits should be carried out. You can see that there is increasing pressure on schools to ensure good attendance and schools are being held to account.
The changes to be aware of are:
- Penalty notices issued for offences that take place after 19 August 2024 will be charged at a new rate of £160 per parent per child. This can be paid at £80 if paid within 21 days.
- Any second penalty notice issued to the same parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period will be issued at the rate of £160 to be paid within 28 days with no option for a discounted rate.
- The threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered is set at 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10-school week period. This may include absences as a result of arriving late after the register closes. The 10 school weeks may span different terms or school years.
- A maximum of 2 penalty notices may be issued to a parent for the same child within a rolling 3-year period, so at the 3rd (or subsequent) offence(s) another course of action will need to be considered (such as prosecution or one of the other attendance legal interventions).
Only penalty notices issued for absences taking place after 19 August 2024 will count towards the above thresholds.
Click the link to our Attendance Policy