Absences

If your child is absent, even for a short time, we expect a telephone call before 9am on EACH day of absence stating your child's name, tutor group and reason for absence.    

It is very important that we record absences correctly.  If we do not receive confirmation for the reason for absence or the reason does not fit into any of the given categories, we have to class this as unauthorised (e.g. shopping visits, caring for family members, parent illness, work commitments and trips to theme parks are not classed as authorised absences). 
Each day is broken into two sessions, morning and afternoon, and attendance is reported in sessions rather than days.  Your child’s attendance will be monitored on a regular basis and if attendance falls below 90% they will be identified as persistent absentees.

Attendance less than 90% will lead to a referral being made to the Child and Family Worker who will arrange for you to come into school for a meeting and set up a plan to monitor your child’s attendance.  If there is no improvement a fixed penalty may be issued.

Lateness of all pupils is also monitored and recorded and parents will be informed in writing the number of late sessions recorded for their child.  Regular and continued lateness may result in a referral to the Child and Family Worker.  Any late arrivals after 8.45am will be recorded and the total minutes late logged. Late arrivals after 9am will be recorded as unauthorised.

10 unauthorised sessions, in a 10 week period may result in a fixed penalty or a court summons.

Absence During Term Time

Headteachers cannot grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.  This will mean that we are not able to authorise absence from school during term time and holiday absence taken during term time will therefore be classed as unauthorised.  Holidays that are not authorised may result in a fixed penalty.  Unless there are extenuating circumstances, penalty notices will only be issued once.  If your child has further unauthorised absences additional legal action will be taken.  For example, in the event that a Penalty Notice has previously been served to you due to unauthorised holiday, should your child have any future unauthorised leave this will result in further legal action for you, such as prosecution or an Education Supervision Order.

Should you wish to make an application to the Headteacher for pupil absence during term time for exceptional circumstances, please complete the form below and return to the school office.