Attendance at School

We always want children to attend school and we pride ourselves on having above national average attendance year on year. 

Illness

However, we recognise that from time to time your child maybe ill or have an appointment and cannot attend school. If this is the case you need to do the following;

• Ring the school office (01302 844883) to inform us your child is going to be off school. Our team will then inform school transport not to collect your child. On occasions we might not get the message to the team in time, and they may still turn up at your house. If this is the case if you can let them know they will continue their route. 
• When your child is ready to return to school, please call the office again so they can reinstate the transport so your child can be picked up the following morning

On occasions your child may become ill at school. 

If your child is a little under the weather our leadership team and first aiders will see your child and we will always ring you on the phone numbers, you have provided us with. 

We may decide to,

• make your child comfy at school, reduce demands on them and monitor them closely. 
• ask you to collect your child as soon as possible
• ring 111 to ask for further advice if it is not an emergency 
• ring 999 if we believe it to be an emergency

In all cases we will attempt to make contact with you, so you are aware of our intended actions, and so you can help us in the decision-making process. 

Persistent and Unexplained Absence from School

If you do not call school to let us know your child is not in school or there is not a good reason for absence, a member of our school team will contact you.

If we cannot contact you, we will try the other numbers you have provided us with. On the rare occasion we cannot get hold of you through any of these numbers, a member of the senior leadership team will visit your house to ensure that you and your child are ok.  

We aim for all children to have 96% attendance or above each year. We appreciate that due to medical appointments, seasonal bugs and anxiety related issues pupils may fall below this. We always want to support families and children where attendance becomes a more significant issue. We support attendance issues in the same way as we do most other things, we offer a personalised approach. This may include strategies such as,

• Home visits from our family support team
• Home learning and videos from the class team
• designing a personalised timetable which looks to integrate children back into school slowly 
• seeking advice from medical and other professionals
• contacting the LA and Education Welfare Officers who can offer support

This list is not exhaustive and, in every case, we will look to work with families to improve attendance. 

Further guidance

Below is a table from the Public Health Agency which offers advice about keeping your child off school.