Attendance
To help children achieve their very best in school, it is important that they are good attenders and also punctual. Teachers welcome pupils into the classroom from 8.50am for response marking and all children are expected to be in school by 9am.
Registers are taken at 9am every day, followed promptly by the first lesson. Parents play a pivotal role in supporting children to arrive on time every day, so that children are calm, focused and ready to learn. If a child arrives after 9am, they are marked as 'late'.
We have to keep a record of absences by law. If your child is absent for any reason, we request that you phone the school, by 9am, on the morning of his/her absence and inform us. If you do not inform us of your child’s absence, we will give a first day of absence response call, asking why your child is absent.
More detailed information is contained in our Attendance Policy:
Absence due to Illness
If your child is unwell and will not be coming in to school, you will need to contact us to let us know that your child will not be in, each day they are absent.
If you are not sure whether to bring your child in, ask us and we will advise you. If your child is unwell in school we will phone you to come and collect them.
Vomiting & Diarrhoea
Infections can be easily spread from person to person (by unwashed hands), especially in children. A child with diarrhoea and/or vomiting symptoms must stay away school until they have been free of symptoms for 48 hours (the ‘48 hour rule’) and feel well. Personal hygiene whilst ill must be very strict.
If your child is sick at school, we will ask you or your emergency contact to take your child home. They should not return for 48 hours. This should reduce the risk of infection for all children in school. As an example, if your child is sick at lunchtime on a Tuesday, they should not return to school until Friday, provided there have not been any further episodes of vomiting.
Leave of Absence Requests
In September 2013, the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 came into force. These regulations make it clear that Headteachers should not grant approval for any leave of absence during term-time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances. These regulations also state that holidays cannot be authorised retrospectively.
The Headteacher therefore will not authorise school absence solely for the purpose of a family holiday. There may be many reasons for which a family may wish to plan a holiday in term time, including restrictions at work or financial opportunities, however, these do not over ride the constraints placed on Headteachers not to authorise ‘family holidays’.
I want to take my child out of school at term time, and I think my reasons are exceptional. Can the school help?
There is a discretionary power held by Headteachers to authorise absence in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Although the DfE do not define ‘exceptional’, circumstances may include, for example:
A family holiday is not an exceptional circumstance. We advise that you do not plan for your child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement from their school first.
Attendance records taken for a pupil over a 12 month rolling period, that fall below 95%, are considered poor.
Any requests should be on an official school absence request form and handed in to the school office for consideration prior to any holiday/leave arrangements being made.
