Absence from school

If your child is absent from school, please contact the school on the first day informing us of their absence and the reason for this. The school office will then contact the parents of any children who are absent whose parents have not yet made contact following the closure of registers, to request the reason for the absence. If no reason is given, then the absence will be noted as unauthorised. A short-term absence, e.g. attending a music examination, will require parents to complete a short term absence form available from the School Office.

Holidays during term time are not permitted but we do understand that occasionally circumstances make absences unavoidable. The absence request form must be completed by the parent and returned to school before the absence commences. The form asks you to indicate what is the exceptional nature of the request. On very rare occasions longer time may be required and in this instance parents should put their request in writing to the Chair of Governors. Any additional leave will be counted as unauthorised absence.

From time to time there will inevitably be compassionate or other unavoidable grounds for children to be taken out of school during term time.

Teachers may give limited discretionary academic support for children going away during term time but parents should be aware that this will not be as comprehensive as they would gain if remaining in school. The Headteacher does not expect teachers to necessarily mark this work.

As part of our monitoring procedures for attendance, the attendance of all pupils is scrutinised on a regular basis which may be followed up by letters or a formal meeting request depending on the attendance concern as outlined in the County guidelines for managing attendance.

Lateness

Class teachers electronically mark children as either present or absent each day at the start of both the morning and afternoon session. Pupils who arrive after the start of school will need to enter school via the office and will be marked as Late (L) on the electronic register. Pupils who arrive in school significantly after the start of school will be coded as Late (U) on the electronic register which shows as an unauthorised absence. Where lateness is observed as a pattern, this will be followed up with a letter to parents to try and work together to resolve the cause.