Attendance and Holidays in Term time
We expect children to have at least 97% attendance, this gives them the best chance of making progress and ‘being the best they can be’.
90% attendance means your child is missing 4 weeks in the year and they may be classed as a persistent absentee. By the time they leave school they will have lost a full year’s education.
80% attendance means missing more than half a term each year! Over the child’s whole school career they will miss over 2 whole school years.
ABSENCE PROCESS
If your child is not going to be in school, please call the office to report their absence. Please do this before 9.30am on the first day of absence.
If we have not heard from you, we will follow the process below:
At 9:30am we will send you a text message.
If we have not heard from you by 10am, we will start to call all of the contact numbers that you have provided to gain an explanation for the absence.
If we have still not been able to find out where your child is, then we (school or Vicky Lynch, our EWO) will make a home visit about 11am.
If we still haven’t been able to get a response, we will report it to the police as your child will then be classed as a ‘missing child’. We will then ask them to do a ‘safe and well check’ by visiting your home.
This procedure is to ensure that we know where your child is and that you are all safe
If your child’s attendance starts to fall, Miss Rambini will be in touch to see how we can support you and your child. If your child’s attendance falls to 90% or below, Miss Rambini will be required to complete an attendance profile on your child and will arrange to meet with you. We will also ask you attend an attendance panel or ask you to provide medical evidence when your child has been absent.
To support your child’s attendance, please;
contact us on the 1st day your child is absent from school
let us know if your child is unsettled so that we can help
do not take holidays in term time.
Holidays in Term Time
All holidays in term time will be unauthorised, unless you have exceptional circumstances.
If your child is absent and it is believed that they are on holiday, we have to complete a request for a penalty notice. This gets sent to the local authority, who are likely to issue a fine. A fine is issued to anyone with parental responsibility, regardless of whether they reside at the same address. The fine may also be issued to any person who lives with and looks after the child, irrespective of what their relationship is with the child.
If you feel that you have exceptional circumstances and need your child to have time off in term time, you can obtain a request form from school. This needs to be returned to school at least 2 weeks before the leave is needed. It is at the Head Teacher’s/Governor’s discretion as to whether to authorise the leave. Family holidays are not classed as exceptional circumstances.