Our school believes a healthy child is expected to achieve an attendance rate of greater than 96.5%. Anything less than 90% attendance is classed as persistent absence and requires the child's attendance to be closely monitored.
School policy
- Children should be settled in their classroom before 9am, ready for registration. Children arriving after the register has closed will be marked as late.
- If a child is not in school by 9.30 without prior explanation, the absence will be marked as unauthorised and attempts will be made to contact parents/carers
- School undertakes regular monitoring of absence and reports to parents regularly
- Please see our Attendance and Punctuality Policy for more details
Your role as a parent/carer
- If your child is poorly: Contact the school office before 9.30am by phone or email. If your child has been sick or has diarrhoea, they should stay off school for 48 hours to reduce the risk of infection spreading. Please see guidance from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on exclusion periods for common illnesses.
- It is the parent/carer's legal obligation to get their child into school.
- If you are struggling to get your child into school, please speak to their class teacher.
Leave of Absence in Term Time
The Government has established strict rules about when a child can be granted absence from school during term time. Head teachers are not allowed to authorise any leave of absence, including holidays, except in exceptional circumstances.
In our Cluster of Schools, two tests will be applied to any application for leave of absence. These are:
- Could this leave reasonably be taken at another time?
- Will the leave unduly affect the child’s education and progress?
If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then the application will be refused. Should a parent/carer decide to take their child out of school when leave has been refused, then the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and this may be reported to the Education Welfare Service.
If you think you need to take your child out of school for any reason, please complete an absence request form and return it to the school office as soon as possible.
Leave of Absence Application form
- If you would like a printed copy of this form, please ask at the school office.
