The legal duty of parents to ensure their child attends school regularly is complemented by the school’s duty to monitor attendance and act when pupils are missing. Schools are required to check a pupil’s wellbeing and confirm their whereabouts during the school day.

Unexpected absence

Please call the school to report your child’s absence before 8am on the day of the absence and each subsequent day of absence. Please include:

• The child's name and year group
• Your (the reporting adult's) name and relationship to the child
• When they are expected to return, and
• An explanation for the absence (e.g. symptoms or nature of the illness) in appropriate detail.

Where absence has not been reported, the school is required to make contact and establish this information. School staff may need to conduct home visits where contact has not been established. This impacts on the school's operational capacity, so please do report all absences promptly. 

Medical Appointments

Where possible, appointments for your child should be made outside the school day. Where this is not possible, please notify the school office in writing as soon as possible and provide evidence for the appointment. Where evidence is not provided, it may be necessary to request more information.

Other Absence Requests

Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least 4 weeks before the absence.

Requests should be addressed to the Headteacher and sent in via the school office.

The headteacher will require evidence to support any request for leave of absence, so please consider sending evidence within the initial request. Leave of absences received by the school will always be unauthorised if requested evidence is not supplied.

Holidays during term time will be unauthorised except in exceptional circumstances.