If a child is away from school, a letter is required concerning the nature of the absence. If your child is unwell, we require a phone call before 9.30am on each day of his or her absence.

Holidays are not encouraged during term time. A leave of absence request form should be submitted to the Head Teacher four weeks in advance of an intended absence, stating why the absence needs to be in term time and cannot be in any other school holiday time throughout the year. Each absence request will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Head Teacher. Please do not ask your children to mislead us about an absence, they can rarely maintain this and it puts them in an awkward situation with knowing they should be being honest with school staff.

Bawdsey CECVP School encourages all parents/carers to work in partnership with the school to improve attendance and punctuality and recognises that “parents have the primary responsibility to ensure that pupils of compulsory school age attend school regularly”.

Our Pupil absence figures in 2022/ 2023

Whole School Percentage is 95.87%                                       National for primary schools 2023: 94%

Absence combined 4.13%                                                          Absence combined: 6%

Persistent absence below 90% attendance is 20%               Persistent absence 17.2%

The information below is from the DFE school performance website https://www.find-school-performance-data.service.gov.uk/school/124719/bawdsey-church-of-england-voluntary-controlled-primary-school/absence-and-pupil-population

The Governors hope that if parents do have concerns or complaints, they will discuss them in the first instance with the class teacher and/or headteacher, so that every effort can be made to resolve the matter as quickly and informally as possible. Where necessary the headteacher will try to resolve issues through discussions with parent and teacher. If however the issue cannot be resolved in this way, it may be referred first to the Chairman of Governors of the school or, if that fails, to the Area Education Manager.

Regular consultation between home and school is a feature at Bawdsey School and certainly benefits all children.

The head and class teachers are very happy to talk on an informal basis most days. However, if something may take a while to discuss fully, or if the teacher may need to prepare relevant information, please make an appointment in advance. These can be arranged at any time that is mutually convenient, the school also provides phone slot appointments with all class teachers in the opposite half-term to the consultation evenings for parents/ carers.  The head or class teacher may also at times invite parents/ carers to the school to discuss their child's progress. Formal Consultation Evenings are held in the autumn, spring and summer terms for parents/ carers to discuss with teachers any issues arising from their child's School Report or other aspects of school life. Each child has a full Annual School Report in July with a two smaller summary reports in the other two terms.

Each term class teachers write to parents/ carers outlining the work of the term so that parents are informed of what their child is doing in school and can develop this through links at home. See the 'Visit our classes' page on the website for past copies.

We are using the local provider: Ambition Institute with the Unity Teaching Hub to provide our ECTs with the ability to understand and apply the knowledge and skills set out in the ECF ‘learn that’ and ‘learn how to’ statements and equip them with the tools to be effective and successful teachers.

It is the responsibility of the parents/ carers to inform the School of any changes of address or telephone numbers used for emergency contact. The school requires a minimum of two phone contacts for each child in case of emergency,

It is fully recognised at Bawdsey Primacy School that the child benefits most where the home and school work in close partnership. The parental/ carer contributions to children's learning have a positive impact on the rate of each child's progress. Children who extend their learning at home make progress more rapidly. At Bawdsey School we provide opportunities for children to do this and have a Homework Policy which is shared with parents. Spellings, reading and mathematical activities are included as homework. We sometimes send additional homework, like in preparation for Science week- which the children love!

There are times when children are photographed or filmed taking part in school activities for wider interest such as local newspapers; sometimes photographs are used on our school websites. If parents do not wish their child to be included in these photographs please notify the school in writing.

Parents and local community volunteers are welcomed into the school to help with reading on a regular basis with many activities and events in the school. The benefits of this are appreciated by all. All volunteers are DBS checked.