Sickness and Absences
Your child’s attendance at school is very important to their education. We would draw your attention to the following guidelines:
- All children are expected to attend school and it is a parent’s responsibility to ensure
they do. If a child has irregular attendance you will be asked to attend a school
attendance meeting. - However, please do not send your child to school if they are too ill to be able to cope
with the school day or have an infectious disease e.g. chickenpox. - If your child has been physically sick or has diarrhoea, keep them at home for 48
hours after the last symptom. These are guidelines issued to all schools by the Health
Protection Agency. - If your child is late or absent for any reason please inform the school before 9.00
am, telephone 01206 573849. Messages can be left on the out-of-hour message
service before 8:15am. Unexplained absences are followed up by Mr Harvey, our Attendance Officer. - Mr Harvey will support you to improve any attendance concerns.
- We will contact you by telephone on your child’s first day of absence if we do not
hear from you, to ensure your child is safe with you. - Please try and book dental/doctor appointments out of school hours unless it is
urgent. If your child has an appointment during school hours the office will need to
see the appointment letter/card to copy for the register.
Repeated absence because of illness may require medical evidence to be provided or it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.
How we manage Lateness
- The school day starts at 8:40am when children can begin to come into school
- Registers are taken at 8:55am when children will receive a late mark ‘L’ if they are not in by that time
- Children arriving after 8:55am are required to come into school via the school office. If accompanied by a parent/carer, they must sign them into out ‘Late Book’ and provide a reason for their lateness which is recorded
- At 9:00am the registers will be closed. In accordance with the Regulations, if your child arrives after 9:30am, they will receive a mark that shows them to be on site – ‘U’, but this will not count as a present mark, and will mean they have an unauthorised absence
- The school may contact parents/carers regarding lateness
- From time to time a member of school staff will undertake a ‘Late Gate’ check, greeting late arrivals at the main entrance to the school
Unauthorised lateness could result in the school referring to the Local Authority for sanctions and/or legal proceedings. If your child has a persistent late record, you will be asked to meet with Mr Harvey, but you can approach us any time if you are having difficulties getting your child to school on time. We can help and support. We expect parents and staff to encourage good punctuality by being good role models to out children and celebrate good glass and individual punctuality.
Thinking of taking your children out of school for a family holiday?
From September 2015 due to changes in the leave of absence guidelines from the
Attendance Compliance Team at Essex County Council, the school will not authorise any
holidays during term time. Unauthorised absences in term time may result in Penalty
Notices being issued to all parents/carers. These will be issued in consultation with our
trust attendance partners ‘Aquinas’.
Working together to improve school attendance guidance