Absence
Reporting your child's absence
Parents are expected to report their child's absence on the first day by 9:30am.
This ensures we can accurately proceed with our daily safeguarding checks, provide information to our kitchen team and proceed with the school day.
To report your child's absence you should contact the school office and speak to the Attendance Officer, Mrs Richardson.
Failure to report your child's absence can cause delays for our safeguarding checks. If parents have not contacted the school, and are not contactable, then the school will conduct a welfare check to the property to ascertain the wellbeing of the child and family. Further concerns will be reported to Educational Welfares Officerds and the Police.
Illness
If your child is poorly we do not expect them to attend school.
It is the parent’s responsibility to inform school on the first day of a child’s illness. All absences due to illness must be supported by medical evidence eg an appointment card/letter, copy of a prescription etc. For planned medical absences to be authorised a copy of the planned appointment letter must be given to school in advance of the appointment. Any absences due to medical reasons will not be authorised without the appropriate medical evidence.
Should your child be suffering from sickness or diarrhoea they should only return to school when they have been free of symptoms for 24 hours.
Authorised / Unauthorised Absence
We require supporting evidence for:
- All absences that are longer than one day
- All appointments that are during school hours, or that require your child to arrive late in the morning, or leave before the end of the school day
Failure to provide supporting evidence will result in your child’s absence being marked as unauthorised.
Routine medical / dental appointments MUST be taken outside of school hours.
Term Time Leave
The DFE School Attendance advice published in November 2013 states:
“Head teachers should only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. If a head teacher grants a leave request, it will be for the head teacher to determine the length of time that the child can be away from school. Leave is unlikely, however, to be granted for the purposes of a family holiday as a norm.”
To this end there will be no authorised leave given to children for family holidays or travel during term time. Such leave will be marked as unauthorised and parents will be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £60 per child per parent in line with Education Welfare guidelines
The government have amended the Education Regulations (2006) regarding term time leave. These amendments state that “Head Teachers can no longer authorise term time leave, other than in exceptional circumstances.” The regulations came into force on 1st September 2013 and the changes are with immediate effect.
It should be remembered that this is a Government led directive. However children are required to attend school for 38 weeks each year, leaving 14 weeks to attend family holidays. If you are considering leave within term time, please put the request in writing stating the circumstances as early as possible. It is unlikely that leave for holidays and travel during term time will be authorised as these do not constitute exceptional circumstances. Please be advised evidence will be required for any authorisation given.
Our decision to impose Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) for those taking unauthorised term time leave follows these guidelines. This means that parents who choose to remove their child from school for unauthorised leave will be subject to a FPN. The current cost of which is £60 per child per parent if paid within 21 days. The FPN rises to £120 per child per parent if paid after 21 days but up to the 28th day. If payment is not received during this period, Bromley Education Welfare Service may proceed with legal action.
If you have any queries regarding this, please make an appointment to speak to Mrs Richardson, Attendance Officer