Carrigtwohill

Community National School

  Attendance and Punctuality

As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting every child’s learning and wellbeing, we are sharing a short explainer document on attendance and punctuality, which you will find linked below.

This outlines why regular attendance and timely arrival are so important, how the school supports families, reporting procedures and what to do if your child is absent.

We hope you find it clear, helpful, and reassuring.

Attendance and punctuality explainer

School attendance and punctuality is correlated with better learning outcomes and a stronger sense of community and happiness for children in school. There will always be situations where a child has to stay home, due to illness and other unavoidable situations. It’s important to note that where a child has been vomiting or has diarrhea, they must be kept home until 48 hours after the last episode.

Outside of this, wherever possible pupils should be in school each day. School starts at 8:40am each day. Attendance is recorded daily by the class teacher on our online roll books via Aladdin.

If the child arrives later than 8:40, the time of arrival is also recorded here (this is calculated by Aladdin into learning time missed at the end of the year).

The Legal Requirements

There are two mandated reporting mechanisms for attendance where attendance is reported to TUSLA, the child and family agency:

 

School Attendance Reports

There are two reporting periods in the year, September to December and January to June. We submit the school attendance returns in January for September to December and again in June.

On this form we are required to list any pupils, over the age of 6, who have missed 20 school days for any reason. You will be informed if your child is included in the report. These figures are used for statistical purposes only.

The reports are not something to be concerned about in themselves. While attendance is hugely important, there are also very valid reasons for children to miss school and this is understood. Where the school has concerns about your child’s attendance, we will be in touch to discuss with you separate to this.

Please be mindful that missed days do add up quickly, and 20 days in a year is a month of learning time the child has lost, so it is important to minimise absences that are within a families control.

Discretionary Referrals

Discretionary referrals are made where a school is worried about the attendance of a pupil. This might be due to a lot of unexplained absences, a pattern of absence, significant ongoing issues with punctuality leading to a lot of missed learning time etc.

A school will refer a child to the Education Welfare Officer where they have these concerns. The role of the Education Welfare Officer is primarily to offer support to families to improve attendance.

The school will always contact parents before referring to the Education Welfare Officer and support where possible.

Key Things to Note:

  • The aim of attendance and punctuality procedures are to ensure the child gets the best experience of education and maximises learning time. We are available to support as needed.
  • There is no need for concern if you get an email saying your child has been included on the attendance report. Explained absences are recorded as such.
  • Be sure to enter your absence reason on Aladdin each time your child is absent, to keep that on record.
  • Aim to have your child in school for 8.40am each day. We understand this isn’t always possible, and understanding is always there for extenuating circumstances.
  • Chat to Múinteoir Dairine if it’s an ongoing challenge and a note can be made of it.

For questions or queries relating to attendance, please contact our deputy principal Múinteoir Dairine (dairine.taaffe@carrigtwohillcns.ie)

The Tusla Education Support Service have more information for parents/guardians on their page here.

https://www.tusla.ie/tess/information-for-parents-and-guardians-tess/