Attendance and Absence
Attendance
Attendance has been given a much higher profile by the Government recently and pupils are expected to maintain high levels of attendance. In common with the other schools, leave of absence can only be authorised at the discretion of the Headteacher in accordance with strict guidance. A child’s absence from school without a satisfactory reason is deemed to be unauthorised, and so I would like to remind you of the following guidance:
A request for absence other than illness must be made in advance.
As of September 2013, the Headteacher is no longer allowed to authorise any holiday during school time except in very exceptional circumstances. Any such request should be made in writing.
As far as possible medical appointments should be made for after school or in the school holidays, however children should attend school for as much of the day as possible. Please inform the school of any such appointments by letter.
We do appreciate that there are problems with the taking of family holidays, but all absence represents a loss in education to the child. There are only 190 days in a school year. This means there are 175 days left for holidays and other treats.
Please remember that missing one day a fortnight means missing over a year’s schooling by the time they finish their education.
Absence
Absence due to illness should be reported from the first day by 9.15 am. Notification may be made either by telephone, e-mail, in person or by letter. We operate a system whereby we will ring a parent on the first day of absence if we have not heard from them.
Please inform the school immediately if your child has contacted any of the common contagious childhood illnesses, e.g. Measles, Chicken Pox etc.
After a bout of sickness or diarrhoea, we follow the Public Health Agency guidance of asking children to wait 48 hours before returning to school. This is to prevent infections being spread to other children and staff.
For additional guidance on infection control and attendance at school please refer to the link below:
Other useful links:
Head lice information: https://beta.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice?WT.mc_id=organic_split
Threadworms information: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Threadworms/Pages/Introduction.aspx