Attendance and Medical Appointments

Attendance

Attendance at all school sessions is required by law. The only exceptions to this are in cases of illness or where the Head of School has granted special leave-of-absence. 

It is essential that you contact the school before 9.00am on the day your child is legitimately absent and leave a voicemail message at any time. 

The school operates a 'First-Day-Calling-System' to ensure that parents and carers and school coordinate any absences. Our Attendance Officer will call you if your child is absent and we do not know the reason. 

To help with the smooth running of the system, please ensure you follow the school's procedure:

• Inform the school if your child is going to be absent from school because of a dental or medical appointment at least two days in advance of the appointment so the register can be marked appropriately. 
• Telephone the school before 8.45am if your child is unwell or has an emergency appointment. Please give an indication of approxomately how many days you anticipate your child being absent from school. If your child is absent for more than three days, please contact school on the fourth day to keep the school informed. Also, if your child is absent following a weekend please telephone the school on Monday. 
• Provide a doctor's certificate if the illness is prolonged and the school request a copy. 
• Advise the school if your child is going to be late for any reason.

If a child is ill during the school day they will be taken to the School Office, where they will be seen by a designated member of staff. A decision will then be taken whether or not to contact parents or carers. 

Please inform the school if your child contracts an infectious or contagious disease; these include head-lice infestation, an occasional problem in school which can spread rapidly through classes unless treated, chicken-pox, mumps and German measles (Rubella), which can have serious implications for staff. 

If your child has either vomiting or diarrhoea, they must stay away from school for 48 hours from the last bout. This is a recommendation from Public Health England to protect other pupils and staff. If a child is sent into school within the 48 hour period, we will contact the parents and ask for the child to be collected from school. Please click here for further information. 

Punctuality

Children are required to attend school on time and registration starts at 8.45am prompt and closes at 9.05am. Teachers record lateness in the registers and persistent lateness will be referred to the Education Welfare Officer. 

Leave of Absence

The school holiday dates are published in advance and we therefore do not see any reason for parents and carers to need to take their children out of school during term time. Therefore, in the interests of your child's education, the Head of School will not normally be prepared to grant leave-of-absence for family holidays or holidays with friends or youth organisations in school time. There is strong DfE evidence showing that children who are absent for any length of time do not make good progress or achieve their full potential. if a family feels leave in term time is unavoidable then written details must be provided by completing the leave of absence request form found at the foot of this page. This should be done at least two weeks in advance so that appropriate consideration can be given and a response made.

Please note that failure to comply with this procedure may result in an unauthorised absence being recorded and the Educational Welfare Officer being informed.

Signing in/out procedure

Any child arriving at school after 8.45am will have missed the morning registration mark and must be signed in by their parent or carer at Reception, giving the reason for the late arrival. Any child who has to leave school during school hours for a medical appointment or similar bona fide reason must have a note requesting this. This should be addressed to the class teacher who will pass it to the School Office. Children leaving school during the school day must be signed out at Reception by their parent or carer. 

Dental and medical appointments

Parents and carers are asked most earnestly not to arrange these during school sessions, except in cases of urgency, so that considerable interference with school work is avoided. Please do not keep children out of school for the whole day unless absolutely necessary. 

Medicine

If your child requires medicine to be administered during the school day, including self-administered medication such as inhalers, a form must be completed to accompany the medicine. We can only accept prescription medicine. Medicines must be in the original container as dispensed by the pharmacy.