Attendance and Reporting an Absence

It is the parents’ / carers’ responsibility to contact the school every day their child is absent. This is a safeguarding requirement so that all parties know that a child is safe and their whereabouts known.

Please call the Absence Line on 01797 363 594 or text 07860055253 by 8.30am, every day your child is absent.

Remember to include your child’s name, your name, tutor group, the reason for absence and expected date of return.

The Academy is not obliged to accept a parent’s explanation. A letter or telephone message from a parent does not in itself authorise an absence. If no explanation is received, absences will not be authorised.

Please see our information guide Too Ill for School or click on the link below:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Should your child’s attendance fall below 95% the academy will no longer authorise any absence unless the relevant medical evidence is provided eg, picture of medication, details of appointment.

Parents may be required to provide medical evidence if their child has been absent due to illness for more than 3 consecutive days, or there are persistent and repeated cases of absence.

When absence becomes a concern, parents may be required to provide medical evidence for any further absence. Failure to provide medical evidence will result in the absence being recorded as unauthorised.

If your child is absent from school for 5 days, then on day 5 of absence we will make a home visit.

Poorly, unwell, birthdays, confusion over term dates, caring for a family member and medical or dental appointments of more than half a day without very good reason are some examples of what will NOT be authorised.

Medical evidence can take the form o f a doctor’s letter, a paper or digital appointment confirmation, copy or photo of prescription or photo of prescribed medication.

So we can support you we may wish to make a School Nurse Referral for repeated absence due to illness.

Any medical updates and medical information is really important for us to receive so we know how we can support your child in school.

We ask that wherever possible please make medical appointments out of school hours and provide proof of appointment – appointment card, screen shot of text reminder, consultation appointment letter.

Medical / dental appointments of more than half a day without very good reasons will not be authorised.

We do understand that there may be times when medical appointments are made during the school day and cannot be changed.

If your child is ging to be late to school, please let us know – your child should sign in at the Student Office on arrival.

If your child needs to leave during the school day, please let us know – you child should sign out at the Student Office – we would expect them to return after the appointment and they will need to sign back in at the Student Office.

If your child feels ill in lesson, they should inform the teacher who will send them to the Student Office.

We do have first aid trained staff who will decide if your child is too ill to remain in school.

Wherever possible we will always try for your child to remain in school – sometimes a glass of water or 5 mins sat quietly or just encouragement will help them.

Should they need to go home the Student Office will firstly get permission from your child’s Year Team and then call home to let you know and to arrange for them to be collected.

We would not expect your child to make their own way home if they are too ill to remain in school.

It is ok for your child to have medication in school but would need the medication stored at the Student Office and for a medication form to be completed by you – we will always call home and let you know if your child has been to ask for pain relief medication that you have approved for them to take.

Please email/write into the school with as much notice as possible detailing the reason, dates and date of return.

The Attendance Team will reply to you by email with a formal letter.

The DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance. This means that holidays cannot be authorised.

10 incidents of late arrival after the register has closed – after 9.30am – register will be coded U.

Holiday in Term Time = 10 sessions within a rolling period of 10 school weeks.

10 sessions of unauthorised absences within a rolling period of 10 school weeks and failure to improve following a Notice to Improve letter.

Attendance Table:

Whilst 90% in an exam is a really good result – 90% attendance = 19 days of school missed in the Academic Year.

If your child has 15 days of illness, we must report this to our Local Authority.

If your child who fail to attend school regularly or have been absent for a continuous period of 10 school days, we must report this to our Local Authority.

The first thing to say is that you are not alone!

Nationally we know that many children are missing out on a normal childhood experience, due to physical or mental health that they are unable to attend despite the support of home and school.   It’s all too easy to blame parents for failing to get their child to school but the reality is that many parents struggle despite their best efforts and intentions so it’s important to state that there is no judgement from us.

We simply want to work with you to support a re-integration somehow, sometime in the future and so the importance of keeping in touch is really important.

Prevention is better than cure and so as tempting as it is to permit a day off when you child seems anxious about attending, this can easily become two, three etc and once a child is not attending it is so much harder to get them back to school.

So, just as we will look at attendance to spot potential problems, we ask that parents do the same and talk to us, let us know if your child begins to struggle or express that they don’t want to attend.

There are some useful resources online to support families.

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-a-z-mental-health-guide/school-anxiety-and-refusal/

https://www.annafreud.org/resources/schools-and-colleges/addressing-emotionally-based-school-avoidance/

https://kentresiliencehub.org.uk/working-with-young-people/session-plans-activities/resources-for-specific-needs/emotional-wellbeing-advice-guidance-and-support-for-highly-anxious-pupils/