Attendance

School attendance is central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential - 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.

We ask parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly and be punctual to their lessons

If your child is ill, please use the following Studybugs link to report their absence:

Studybugs

If you are unable to use Studybugs, please ring  the school:

Absences: 01256 961332

Telephones are manned between the hours of 8:00am and 4:00pm

The following link gives useful information about when your child should stay off school: 

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

 

Illness (not medical or dental appointments)

The schools asks parents to notify them on the first day the child is unable to attend due to illness. We will authorise absences due to illness unless the school has a genuine cause for concern about the veracity of an illness. If the authenticity of illness is in doubt, we can request parents to provide medical evidence to support illness. Schools can record the absence as unauthorised if not satisfied of the authenticity of the illness but will advise parents of their intention. We will not request medical evidence unnecessarily. Medical evidence can take the form of prescriptions, appointment cards, as well as a doctors’ notes.

Medical or dental appointments

Missing registration for a medical or dental appointment is counted as an authorised absence, however we encourage parents to make appointments out of school hours. Where this is not possible, the pupil should only be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary for the appointment.

 

Leave of absence authorised by the school

Only exceptional circumstances warrant an authorised leave of absence. The school will consider each application individually taking into account the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind the request. Should you need to complete a request, please visit the school reception.

Holiday authorised by the school

The headteacher will not grant leave of absence unless there are exceptional circumstances. The application must be made in advance and the headteacher must be satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances based on the individual facts and circumstances of the case which warrant the leave. Where a leave of absence is granted, the headteacher will determine the number of days a pupil can be away from school. A leave of absence is granted entirely at the headteacher’s discretion.

Religious observance

We will treat absence as authorised when it is due to religious observance. The day must be exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parents belong. Where necessary, we will seek advice from the parents’ religious body about whether it has set the day apart for religious observance.

Holiday not authorised by the school or in excess of the period

If the school does not authorise a leave of absence for the purpose of a holiday but the parents still take the child out of school, or the child is kept away for longer than was agreed, the absence is unauthorised. The regulations do not allow schools to give retrospective approval. If the parents did not apply for leave of absence in advance, the absence must be recorded as unauthorised.

Absent from school without authorisation

If the school is not satisfied with the reason given for absence they should record it as unauthorised.

Arrived in school after registration closed

The schools actively discourages late arrivals, we will be alert to patterns of late arrival and seek an explanation from the parent as well as students needing to sit a late detention to make up the time.