Attendance and absence

By law all children between 5 years and 16 years must get a suitable, full time education.  As a parent, you are responsible for making this happen.  Once your child is registered at a school, you are responsible for making sure he or she attends regularly.  If your child does not attend regularly, the Local Authority (LA) may take action against you.

There may be times when your child has to miss school because he or she is ill.  On these occasions, please call the school on the first day of abence between 8.30 am & 9.30 am on 01926 423404.   This applies to all children registered at the school.  You can download our full Attendance Policy here.

Medical appointments

Please try to make doctor and dentist appointments after school hours or in school holidays wherever possible.  We appreciate that this may not always be possible.

Holidays in term time

Please consult the school before booking a holiday during term time. You should not expect school to agree to an absence during termtime.  Holiday application forms are available from the office (or you can download one here), please give as much notice as possible, preferably 6 weeks.  Taking a holiday during term time means that children miss important school time - both educationally and for other school activities.  It will be difficult for them to catch up with work later on.  Any term time holiday taken without the agreement of school will be recorded as unauthorised.

Exceptional circumstances

If you need to take your child out of school under exceptional circumstances such as bereavement or for religious reasons, please contact the school immediately.

• If your child is absent and we have not heard from you by 9.30 am we may call you to establish the reason for the absence
• When your child returns to school, if we have not yet established a reason for the absence, we will send a letter home with your child
• If we have been unable to establish a reason for the absence within 10 days, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised

Percentage attendance

• If your child's attendance falls below 95%, we will write to notify you of our concern.
• If your child's attendance falls below 90%, we will invite you to meet with the Head teacher and other relevant staff to discuss any issues or concerns you may have.
• If your child's attendance falls below 85%, we will refer the matter to the Educational Social Work Service who will work with your family to help resolve an issues regardng attendance that your child may have.
• If you have any questions or concerns regarding attendance, please contact Alison O'Dwyer (Attendance Admin) on 01926 423404 or call into the office any morning.