Late/Absence Procedures

Please refer to our schools Attendance Policy, which was written in link with HCC guidance (which initiated fixed penalty notices), for full information regarding our expectations on lateness and attendance. If your child is going to be absent from school you need to contact the school, via the school answer phone available 24/7, before 9 am on the first day of absence 01992 624487.  Below are some key points from our attendance policy.

In this Policy it states that warning letters are sent after 2 sessions of unauthorised absence. A session is either a morning or an afternoon, i.e. one day is made up of 2 sessions.  There are several reasons for an unauthorised absence:

• Arriving before 9 am - Between 8.55 am and 9 am children are given an ‘L’ late code. This is not recorded as unauthorised.
• Arriving after 9 am - After 9 am, children are given a ‘U’ unauthorised absence code for the morning session. Oversleeping, traffic issues (with the exception of major incidents that affect all drivers) or distance to school are not acceptable reasons for being late after 9 am.
• No contact- If no message is received on the school absence line (which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) or through the school office before 9 am then the absence for that session is recorded as unauthorised. All messages left on the school answer phone are recorded and documented by the office staff.  The office staff will contact you, in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy, during the morning, to ask the reason for absence, however, this will still be recorded as unauthorised as no parental contact was made before 9 am.
• Current level of absence- If a child already has a lower than 96% attendance and has received additional letters from us regarding this, the school will not authorise any further absence without medical proof.
• Term time holiday- The Headteacher no longer has the authority to authorise term time holiday and this will be recorded as unauthorised. Special requests for an absence must be made in writing, at least 3 weeks before the requested time off, which we will consider in accordance with our Policy.

If you require a hard copy of the schools Attendance Policy please order one from the School Office.