Attendance and Absences

School Attendance

Extract taken from: DFE publication - School attendance Guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities, September 2018.

Central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential is an assumption so widely understood that it is insufficiently stated – pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school. The government expects:

• Schools and local authorities to:

     • Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence;

     • Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled; and,

     • act early to address patterns of absence.

• Parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.

• All pupils to be punctual to their lessons.

Leave of absence in Exceptional Circumstances

Application for term-time leave of absence must be made in advance by the parent with whom the child normally resides on the form headed ‘Application for leave of absence in Exceptional Circumstances’. These may be obtained from the school office or via the link below.

Leave of absence will only be granted where the Headteacher considers it is due to ‘exceptional circumstances’. Parents will be informed within 7 school days as to whether the request has been authorised or unauthorised.

There are approximately 195 school days (390 sessions) a year which your child is expected to attend. There are also approximately 71 days (142 sessions) of school holidays. This is over 13 school weeks. Please ensure that your holidays are taken during these periods, as holidays during term time cannot be authorised.

Sickness

Please notify the school on each day of the absence.  We reserve the right to request a doctor’s/consultant’s letter regarding recurring and frequent illness. 

Where medical appointments are unavoidably during the school day, we will ask to see a copy of the appointment letter.

Monitoring Pupil Absence

In order to ensure our pupils benefit from good attendance and develop good attendance habits, we monitor pupil absence termly. Where attendance is becoming a concern or there is persistent absence (persistent absence is triggered when pupils are absent for more than 10% of school sessions) parents will be notified in writing and may be invited to meet with the headteacher.

How can you help improve your child’s achievement by improving attendance?

• Differentiate between minor ailments and the sort of illness that warrants a day off
• Avoid taking holidays during school time
• Avoid allowing odd days off here and there
• If your child has a medical appointment only take them out of school for part of the day, not all day