Absence
Legally the school is responsible for your child at all times within school hours, therefore no child will be allowed to leave the school premises during this time, unless we have received written permission from parents or carers. Please inform the school in writing in advance of any reason your child may have to leave school during the day along with the name of the person who will collect the child, if not the parent or carer. Your child will need to be collected from the school office so that office staff can ask you to sign your child out.
On returning to school, please report to the office for signing in purposes to ensure that an accurate record of pupils on site can be maintained. Please endeavour to make medical or dental appointments outside of the school day wherever possible. Please provide appointments letters to the school office for copying for school records.
If your child is absent, please contact the school office by telephone on the first day of absence by 9.30am and provide a written note explaining the absence on returning to school.
The school office will contact all parents from 9.30am if we do not know why your child is absent from school. If your child is absent from school first thing in the morning, but is intending to return for school lunch let us know before 10:00am because precise numbers of meals are cooked from that time onwards. Any child sent home ill after 10.00am and having ordered a meal would unfortunately be charged because the food allocations are made to that deadline.
In line with DCSF regulations and the school’s Attendance Policy the school will only authorise absences which are justifiable (e.g. sickness, family crisis). Absences for other reasons (e.g. birthday treats, shopping, lateness over 30 minutes after the start of the school day) will be classified as unauthorised. The Education Welfare Officer (EWO) assists the school in monitoring attendance and is available to support and offer guidance when appropriate. Your child’s attendance is monitored carefully by the school and parents/carers will be contacted throughout the school year should any issues arise. Ofsted grade the school on its attendance data: the schools aims to achieve 97% or higher and this is the pupils individual target also. Children are rewarded for good attendance at school. These are the indicators used in the Local Authorities Leave of Absence Calculation chart for pupils.
Leave of Absence During Term Time
The Government has made amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 which came into force on 1st September 2013. These state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence for holidays during the term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. The schools decision to grant leave of absence will be decided on a case by case basis, generally when leave is unavoidable or there are genuine medical or emotional concerns. In these cases it is the Headteacher who determines the number of days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.
As a consequence of these changes the Headteacher will no longer be able to approve requests for leave of absence for holidays and other reasons that are not considered to be special or exceptional. The following reasons will not be acceptable:
- Availability of cheap holidays and cheap travel arrangements
- Days of holidays overlapping with beginning or end of term or weekends
This is Government policy and parents or carers who take their children out of school, such as for holidays, without permission will incur unauthorised absences for their child. These remain on the child’s record and will be monitored for further action by the Education Welfare Service.
From 1st September 2013, the school will notify the Local Authority of any unauthorised absences from school in accordance with Derbyshire guidelines. Parents could be issued with a fixed penalty notice and/or court action by the Local Authority. The penalty is £60 per child for each parent for each period of unauthorised absence and has to be paid within 28 days. The payment must be paid direct to the local authority. Parents have no right of appeal against a penalty notice.