Absence from School

 

There is no longer provision in law for a headteacher to authorise any absence from school for the purpose of  a term time holiday. Parents can only request absence from school for exceptional circumstances. Further details on this have always been available on the school website or from Mrs Owen in the school office – we have always said that parents should ask if they have any questions before booking any holidays.

The following information comes from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and refers to updated guidance regarding how schools respond to holiday requests and absence. Please read carefully as there are changes.

 

Requests for Absence From School in Exceptional Circumstances and Penalty Notices

 

You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly.  If your child accrues 10 consecutive sessions of unauthorised absence you may be liable for a penalty notice (one days absence equals two sessions and a five day absence is equal to 10 sessions).

An unauthorised absence is any absence that the Head teacher has not given permission for or where an explanation has not been provided by the parents.

Parents must complete a Request for Absence from School in Exceptional Circumstances form and submit this to the school, allowing for sufficient time to enable the school to consider the request and inform parents of the decision. Where parents do not follow the school’s procedures of submitting a request and simply remove their child without seeking prior approval, a warning may not be given and you may be liable for a penalty notice.

 

If your request is declined or you do not follow the correct procedure and you still take your child out of school each parent within your household may be issued with a £60 penalty notice for each child you have taken out of school. If a penalty notice remains unpaid after 21 days it will increase to £120. If after 28 days it remains unpaid you may be summonsed to appear before Magistrates to explain why your child has unauthorised school absences and you may be liable for a fine of up to £1000.

 

Copies of the Absence from School for Exceptional Circumstances request form with the information for parents, the revised referral form and the revised code of conduct are all available below, or from the school office.

 

We advise that you do not plan for your child to be absent without speaking to your child’s Headteacher first to obtain prior approval. Headteachers cannot retrospectively authorise absence from school under any circumstance.

 

Please note the school day is divided into 2 registration periods; for example if your child is absent for one day this equals 2 sessions and a five day absence equals 10 sessions.

Please contact the Headteacher if you have any questions.

 

ATTENDANCE

School’s current policy is to monitor any child’s attendance which drops below 95% - which could be for any reason(s); illness, appointments during school time, holidays, exceptional circumstances etc. This monitoring means looking at class registers to look at the reasons for absence, patterns of absence, etc.

 
Our current policy is then to notify parents if children’s absence is in danger of dropping below 90%. Any attendance below this is classed by the government as being ‘persistent absence’ (whatever the reason) and therefore we have to then act on East Riding of Yorkshire Council guidance to try and improve attendance.


As a result of ongoing reviews of registers and attendance data, there will be letters sent home to inform parents of their child’s attendance if it is currently below 95% or in danger of dropping below 90%. If A child’s attendance then continues to fall, parents will then be invited into school to see if we can offer support. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

 

PUNCTUALITY

Classrooms are open to children as from 8.45am each morning, Breakfast Club is open from 7.30am.   The ideal situation for school, to help each class get off to a good start, is to have all children settled in their classrooms,  working on their ‘Early Morning Starter’ by 8.55am.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for helping make this happen — it really helps the start of the day!

However, children arriving late hold up registration and the beginning of the first session. We do record ’lates’ in the register for any child arriving after 9.00am. Registers are analysed regularly and, as a first measure,  letters will be sent home to those families whose children are regularly arriving late.  We do have a reward system in place for those children who are consistently settled in their classes  on time. Obviously, we know that a large group of children come on the bus each morning, they are always settled in their classrooms by 8.55am.