Skip to content ↓

Attendance & Reporting Absence

Attendance Expectations

Attendance matters and we know that every day in school counts, which is why the Government sets attendance expectations for schools, local authorities, parents/carers and pupils.

Supported by Local Authorities, schools are expected to:

  • Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence;
  • Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled;
  • Act early to address patterns of absence and support parents/carers and pupils.

Parents are expected to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.

Pupils are expected to be punctual to their lessons.

The government asks schools and Local Authorities to identify pupils who are reluctant, or anxious about attending school, or who are at risk of disengagement and develop plans for re-engaging them. This includes disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people.

Schools share information with the Local Authority regarding any pupils they have attendance concerns about in order to fulfil their statutory duty.

Click here to read our Attendance Policy

Support with School Attendance

You may find some useful tips and information to help support you with your child's attendance at school through the following links:

Back to school worries can be common for some children, especially after the holidays or time away from school. If your child is feeling anxious about attending school for any reason or you are struggling with their school attendance or punctuality, please speak to school, we are here to help. Your child's class teacher or the school office are your first point of contact.

If your child doesn't feel 100% well, but wants to give school a go, please let the school office know using the 'Under the Weather Form' at the bottom of this page, and should they feel worse during the day, we will contact you. 

If Your Child is Unwell

We understand that it can be tricky deciding whether to keep your child off school when they are unwell. For most common childhood illnesses and infections (including coughs and colds) schools follow these helpful NHS guidelines, which set out when a child should be kept off school and when they shouldn't:

 Is My Child Too Ill For School? and Should I Keep My Child Off School?  

The new Pharmacy First service is also available to help with some common conditions without the need for a GP appointment, and the poster below gives more details. 

                                         

Reporting Absence

If your child is going to be absent from school for any reason please let us know no later than 9am on the first day and on any subsequent days, by doing one of the following:

         This email is checked early in the morning when the registers are taken.

  • Complete the email notification of absence form below.

Medical Appointments

We ask parents to try and make routine medical and dental appointments for after school or during the school holidays, to minimise any disruption to their child's learning. However, we appreciate that for non-routine appointments, this is not always possible. When a non-routine appointment has to be made for during the school day children are expected to attend school both before and after the appointment, wherever possible.  Parents are asked to provide some form of written confirmation, such as an appointment card, letter or email. This is necessary for us to accurately record the absence in the class register, which is a legal document. If you do not have written confirmation of the appointment, please ask the office for a Medical Absence form to complete. 

Email Notification of Absence / Under the Weather Form

Cookie Policy