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St Clare�s Abbey Primary School, Newry

Attendance Information

Children are required by law to attend school.

An attendance of 85% or below throughout the year is a loss of 6 weeks education for a child which, in reality, means missing out on 6 or 7 topics across the Curriculum.

Please be aware that children’s attendance is not monitored by the school but by Education Authority’s Welfare Officer (EWO) on a monthly basis.

The parents / carers of children with 90% or less attendance usually receive a letter of concern from Mr Byrne.

Should attendance continue to be an issue, the EWO will become responsible for monitoring the future attendance of the pupil every month.

The EWO also monitors pupils who are persistent late comers or display a pattern of leaving school before class is over.

Parents should explain all absences to the Class Teacher verbally/by note or by St Clare’s Abbey Primary School Pro-forma Absence letter, which will be provided upon return to school.

Parents are expected to inform school about planned holidays during the school terms, however, please be aware that ALL HOLIDAYS taken during term time are considered UNAUTHORISED by the Attendance Officer.

Children with additional educational needs

 
 

Mobile Phones

Policy on children's use of mobile phones in school:

We discourage pupils from taking phones to school, however, we appreciate that some parents need their child to take a phone to school to confirm home time arrangements etc. If this is the case, the following arrangements apply:

1. A letter must be sent to Mrs Monaghan explaining the circumstances.

2. The phone must be kept in the child's bag, switched off until home time. Important: pupils take phones to school at their own risk.

3. Pupils must not take photos with their phone, prior to arriving home / being collected.

4. Pupils must NEVER upload any messages or photos relating to school or fellow pupils to social networking sites.

We have had a recent instance of pupils uploading photographs taken in school to TikTok. We remind parents that primary school children do not meet the age restriction for the most popular social networking sites as advised in the ICT monthly newsletters sent home on Seesaw. (see below)