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Attendance & Punctuality

Absence and Punctuality If your child is absent from school through illness or appointments, please can you phone the school as early as possible each day they are absent. It is important that we keep our records accurate. School starts at 8.50am – please can you make sure your child is on the school yard by 8.45am so that we have a prompt start to the school day – lateness will be recorded.

If your child’s attendance falls below a certain percentage, the Educational Social Welfare Worker will be notified by school.

Holidays in Term Time As of September 2013, the Government implemented amendments to the regulations regarding Holidays in term time.  The amendments remove references to family holiday and extended leave as well as the threshold of ten school days.  Therefore Head Teachers will only be able to grant leave of absence in exceptional circumstances (see below for guidance). There will be no ‘Holiday’ code for absences at any school.

No parent/carer can demand leave of absence as of right. The Education regulations state that applications for leave must be made in advance by a parent with whom the child lives and can only be authorised by the school in exceptional circumstances. Each application is considered individually by the school.

The following are examples of the criteria for leave of absence, which may be considered as ‘exceptional’:
* Service personnel returning from active deployment
* Where inflexibility of the parents’ leave or working arrangement is part of the organisational or company policy. This would need to be evidenced by the production or confirmation from the organisation/company
* Where leave is recommended as part of a parents’ or child’s rehabilitation from medical or emotional problems. Evidence must be provided.
* When a family needs to spend time together to support each other during or after a crisis

Please note: Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional

Application for Pupil Leave of Absence in Exceptional Circumstances during Term Time

School Attendance Parental Responsibility Measures