Attendance
Late arrival
We recognise that persistent lateness is:
- detrimental to the child's education
- administratively disruptive
- a poor preparation for future schooling and adult life.
All pupils arriving after our school day starts at 8:45am have to sign in at the office, with a parent/carer filling out a late slip. Pupils arriving after this time will receive a late mark L and the minutes late will be recorded on ScholarPack. Once our registers have closed at 9:15am, children will receive a U mark which is an unauthorised absence and the minutes late will be recorded on ScholarPack. If the reason for lateness beyond 9.15am/1.15pm is an exceptional circumstance as agreed by the Headteacher then code L may be used.
Parents whose children regularly arrive late will receive warning letters from school. If warning letters are ignored and punctuality does not improve, the child’s parent will be invited to a meeting with the Head Teacher.
Absence
Parents are asked to make contact by 8:45am on the first day of absence, by telephone call or e-mail to the school office, informing the school of the reason for the absence and/or nature of any illness. Parents are also asked to inform the school if there is a likely return date. For absences beyond one day, the parent/carer must phone the school each day to provide an update on their child’s condition.
Messages made to the school office are noted on an absence record and subsequently logged as either ‘authorised absence’ or ‘unauthorised absence’. Only the school can make the absence authorised. Parents do not have authority to authorise their child’s absence.
ALL absences will be recorded as unauthorised unless evidence is provided to prove otherwise. It is school policy that if a child is off for more than 5 days then medical evidence must be provided to authorise the absence.
If school are not provided with a reason for absence, the parent will send a text message by 9:15am in line with our 1st day calling procedures (more details can be found below, and in our Attendance and Punctuality Policy).
Medical appointments
We request that wherever possible, medical appointments are scheduled outside of school time. This may mean families requesting that appointment times are changed to a different time (if possible).
For medical appointments, a medical certificate, doctor’s letter, prescription copy or similar proof will need to be provided before the child’s absence will be authorised. Medical proof from a doctor may be required in order to authorise illness-related absences if your child has been identified as a persistent absentee (below 90% attendance). Where any medical proof does not appear to be genuine, we do contact the practice named and asked for it to be authenticated.
Unexplained absences
The school will follow up any absences to ascertain the reason, ensure proper safeguarding action is taken where necessary, identify whether the absence is approved or not and identify the correct attendance code to use.
Unexplained absences will be followed up from day 1 using the following process:
- If no reason has been provided by 9:15am on the first day of absence, a text message will be sent to request a reason is provided by 10:00am.
- If no reason has been provided by 10:00am, members of school staff will carry out a home visit. A calling card will be left if there is no answer during the home visit, requesting urgent contact.
- If no contact has been received by 10:00am on day 2, the school’s senior leadership team will consider contacting the police to arrange a Safe and Well Check.
If we have reason to believe the child is missing from education a safeguarding referral will be made to the local authority CMO.
Leave of absence
Parents wishing to request a leave of absence for their child should complete our online Leave-of-Absence Request form. We ask that this is completed a minimum of 4 weeks before the date requested. School will then inform parents/carers whether the application has been granted or not and outline potential further action if the absence is taken. Headteachers can not grant any ‘Leave of Absence’ during term time unless they consider there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application. All leave of absence requests will be unauthorised unless the circumstances are exceptional.
The Government, Local Authority and school strongly urge parents/carers to avoid taking their children out of school as this will disrupt their education and progress.
Parents/carers do not have any entitlement to take their child on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must establish that there are exceptional circumstances and the headteacher must be satisfied that the circumstances warrant the granting of leave. Applications for ‘Leave of Absence’ which are unauthorised may result in referral to the Local Authority for Penalty Notice or prosecution.
Our full Attendance and Punctuality policy can be found on the policies page.
Click here to request a Leave-of-Absence
Penalty notices
An unauthorised leave of absence of 5 days/10 sessions (over a 10-week rolling period) for the purpose of a family holiday can lead to you being issued with a penalty notice fine of up to £160 for each child who is absent. The fines can be issued to both parents for each child.
In some circumstances the local authority may decide a prosecution via Magistrates court is more suitable, for instance lengthy or repeated leave of absence periods. This would include circumstances where a parent/carer has already had two fines for (child’s name) over a 3-year rolling period.