Attendance and Time Off Requests

Being at School

Being at school is a very important part of any young person’s life.

It enables them to learn, to make friends, to gain important knowledge and to develop a variety of skills which will prepare them for adult life. School and parents are partners in making this a success. As parents or carers, it is your responsibility to make sure that your child makes the most of this opportunity by attending school regularly.

All pupils of compulsory school age are, by law, entitled to a full-time education and attendance has a major impact on a child’s future life opportunities. We expect all children on roll to attend every day, when the school is in session, as long as they are fit and healthy enough to do so. We do all we can to encourage the children to attend, to be punctual and to put in place appropriate procedures. We believe that the most important factor in promoting good attendance is development of positive attitudes towards school. To this end, we strive to make our school a happy and rewarding experience for all children. 

The school day starts at 8.50am for all children. We expect children to arrive in good time to start the day therefore staff are on the playground from 8.40am to take responsibility for them as they arrive. Registers open when teaching begins at 8.50am and close at 9.00am.  The register will be marked with an ‘L’ if a child is not present when the register is taken.  Arrival after the close of registration will be marked with as unauthorised absence code ‘U’. 

If children arrive after 9am they need to sign in so we know they are on site and we are able to check their dinner arrangements.  If attendance, including lateness, is a problem we will notify and work with the parents in the first instance.  It is recognised that there may be circumstances when a child may arrive late because of transport difficulties etc. In these instances school should be informed as soon as possible.  The registers are taken again at 1.15pm.

 

Time off School during Term Time

School Attendance - Departmental advice for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities, October 2014 says:

Can a parent take their child on holiday during term time?

'Head teachers should only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. If a head teacher grants a leave request, it will be for the head teacher to determine the length of time that the child can be away from school. Leave is unlikely, however, to be granted for the purposes of a family holiday as a norm.'

There is an expectation that parents should not take pupils out of school during term time. Schools are required to ensure that children only miss school if it is absolutely unavoidable, because of the detrimental effect that this has on pupils’ attainment and therefore their future life chances. 

For all absence during term time, a formal written request must be made from a person with Parental Responsibility at least two weeks before the planned absence.  Requests made at a shorter notice period may be refused.

Each request will be considered individually taking account of factors, such as:

  • Personal circumstances for the request
  • Age of pupil
  • Overall attendance of pupil 
  • The time of year for the proposed absence and whether it impacts on specific curricular issues e.g. tests/exams
  • The child’s stage of education and their progress
  • An assessment of the impact that missing out on learning will have on the individual child

The following reasons are not exceptional and should not be authorised:

  • availability of cheap holidays
  • availability of desired accommodation
  • overlap with beginning/end of term.

There is no automatic right to any time off school at all for a holiday.

Request to take a child out of school form

Attendance Policy

 

 

 

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