Good attendance is especially important in a school such as ours where the programme of work is so intense and the placement so short. The Board of Management reserves the right to terminate placements if attendance is poor.
The school is open from 9.00 a.m. The school will contact parents/guardians in the event of pupils being consistently late. Persistent latecomers are required to report to the office where their time of arrival is recorded. The Principal is obliged, under the Education Welfare Act, to report children who are persistently late to the Education Welfare Board as well as those who are absent for 20 days or more.
Guidance for Parents regarding attendance
Section [(21) (9)] of the Act states that: “a pupil’s absence can only be authorised by the Principal when the child is involved in activities organised by the school or in which the school is involved”. The school principal cannot authorise a child’s absence for holidays during school time. This has been a great difficulty for the school in the past and we emphasise to parents and guardians that the placement here is so short, and the programme is so structured and intense, that we would really appreciate if holidays can be taken outside of the school year. The decision to keep children out for holidays rests with the Parents/Guardians and will not be sanctioned by the school. It is, however, essential that parents inform the school of such arrangements.
The reasons for pupils’ absences must be communicated in writing by parents/guardians to the school and will be retained on file. To facilitate this, such communications should not be in the homework diary, but on a separate page or sheet of paper. When the child returns to school s/he should give a written note to the class teacher which contains the name, the dates of absence and the reason for the absence. These notes will form a record which may be inspected by the Education Welfare Officer on a visit to the school. The school will contact parents when a written explanation for the child’s absence is not received by the school. This contact is almost always by telephone.
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