At Marjory Kinnon School, we recognise that good attendance is vital for children’s progress at school. We have high expectations of attendance and timely arrival for all our students. When children aren’t at school, they miss important experiences and opportunities. 

We understand that sometimes absences are unavoidable, but it's important to keep them to a minimum. Please work to schedule medical and other appointments outside of school hours whenever possible and do not organise holidays during term time.

Expectations of Attendance

Parents are expected to:

• Make sure their child attends every day on time.
• Provide the school with more than one emergency contact number for their child.
• Ensure that, where possible, appointments for their child are made outside of the school day.
• Keep to any attendance contracts that they make with the school and/or local authority.
• Seek support, where necessary, for maintaining good attendance, by contacting the school’s Family Support Worker, class teacher, or Head of Department – via the school Office.

How to Report an Absence

If your child is going to be absent, please let us know as soon as possible and before 8:55am on the day of the absence. Please use Arbor to report a same-day absence.

Recording an absence on the Parent Portal and Arbor app:

• To record an absence, click on the Quick Actions button and then click Attendance.
• From here, click the green Log Absence button in the top-right of the page.
• Here, you can input the start and end time for the absence and type in the reason for the absence.
• When adding a reason for absence, please record specifically what is wrong with the child if they are ill.
• By default, the absence start and end times reflect the student's full day, but these can be adjusted as needed. Once you have filled in this data, click Log Absence.

Medical Appointments

If your child has a medical appointment, please try to schedule it outside of school hours. If this isn’t possible, let us know in advance and provide any appointment letters or details. Please send this information via email to office@mks.org.uk

Keeping Us Informed

If your child is absent for more than one day, please keep us updated on their progress and expected return date. This helps us support your child’s learning and well-being.

Support for Regular Attendance

If you’re facing challenges that affect your child's attendance, please reach out to us. We can work together to find solutions and support your child's education.

Our procedures

• Registers of attendance are taken at 8.55am and 1:30pm each day. Late registration is recorded.
• Parents will be contacted where reasons for absences are unknown or not acceptable.
• Pupils whose attendance drops below 90% will be monitored and supported with an aim to improve attendance. Letters will be sent to parents regarding non-attendance. If the absences continue to cause concern the school will refer a pupil to the Education Welfare Officer.
• Where we have concerns about individual pupil’s attendance, we will review the situation using our monthly monitoring list. We will work with families to address any issues or barriers that we can help to overcome.
• All parents receive a record of their child’s attendance record in the school report presented at the Annual Review.

Please review our Attendance Policy for Pupils for more detailed information.