ATTENDANCE

Pupils attend school for a maximum of 190 days each academic year. Regular attendance is vital for your child’s education progress.

The Local Education Authority expects all parents/carers to ensure that their children attend school whenever possible. Absences due to holidays taken during school time, could hinder academic progress.

Unfortunately, by law, we are unable to authorise any holiday absence in term time because of the amendment to the law as outlined below:

“The amendments make clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.”

DfE Amendment to ‘The Education (Pupil Registration)(England) Regulations 2006.

The authorities are particularly interested in unauthorised absence because, from their point of view, this could indicate that either a child is unsupervised or that the parent is withdrawing them illegally from school.

Timekeeping is also important in the education of your child. Lateness is monitored by our Attendance Officer. If your child is late often, then you will be contacted and offered any support that you might need to ensure that your child can arrive at school on time everyday.

If we have concerns about your child’s attendance then in the first instance we will contact you to offer support by phone or letter, however if your child’s attendance does not improve, then you will be requested to attend an attendance meeting or be visited at your home; you also risk getting a penalty notice or being prosecuted.

Illness

If your child is ill and unable to attend school, we request that you notify the school on the first day of absence by telephoning the school on 01503 250565.