Attendance policy
Many thanks for the continued support from parents with regards to attendance. Should your son or daughter’s attendance dip then please be advised that we are likely to write to you to advise you of that. We have a statutory duty of care to let you know if there is a decline in attendance. Sometimes having the odd day off can add up, but it may not be noticeable at the time. We appreciate that absence from school is at times necessary, but we will always monitor attendance closely. Should absence continue then it may be necessary to write again or to invite parents in to discuss support strategies and so we can advise regarding providing correct documentation to enable the school to authorise the absence appropriately. Whilst we have a positive relationship with Education Welfare Services, we try to avoid their intervention so we can support before their involvement.
Some points to consider:
- Should your child require any time off school please do contact us to discuss this so that we can support where possible.
- Medical appointments: if the medical appointment cannot take place outside of school hours, please do send a copy of the appointment card or letter into school for our attendance records. Without this record we may not be able to authorise the absence.
- Selection for a Sporting/Music/Dance/Drama Event or Exam: should your child be selected for one of the aforementioned events we will request a copy of the letter or e-mail confirming the selection, date and time.
- Holidays: as always, we are never able to authorise holidays in school time so please avoid booking them during term time. Our term dates for the next academic year are on the website.
- Unauthorised holidays taken in school time will always result in a penalty notice request.
- Leave of absence must be requested prior to the event. We are not allowed to authorise absence after the leave has occurred so the absence will always be unauthorised.
- If you do go away, please be honest. This prevents you being in an embarrassing situation. If we suspect that a child is absent due to a holiday then we will write to request medical evidence in order to authorise that time away from school. If this cannot be provided then the absence will be coded as unauthorised leave of absence and could result in a penalty notice request.
- If your son or daughter is absent from school for a significant period of time, such as a full week, we will expect medical evidence to support the time away. This can be in the form of a medical appointment card or a copy of a prescription. If the absence is likely to be longer than a week, please get in contact with your child’s tutor, who will be able to coordinate work being sent home if appropriate.
Please note that despite the Isle of Wight court ruling, our policy regarding leave of absence remains unchanged. We will advise parents should there be any changes as we receive them. However we will always advise avoiding taking holidays in term time due to the negative impact it can have on achievement and progress.
Information from the Staffordshire Local Authority
The Effect of Absence of school progress over the academic year
