Attendance
Attendance at all school sessions is required by law. The only exceptions to this are in cases of illness or where the Headteacher has granted special leave-of-absence. Please see our Attendance Policy below.
Unauthorised absence of 5 days or more may result in the issue of a Penalty Notice: Penalty Notices are issued by the Local Authority in accordance with Surrey County Council’s Code of Conduct.
New government guidelines were introduced in 2015-2016, reducing the 'persistent absence threshold' from 15% to 10%. Therefore, if your child is absent for more than 10% of term time per year, the Education Welfare Officer will monitor your child when they visit school every half term.
It is essential that you contact the school by 9.30am at the latest on the day your child is legitimately absent. Please call the absence/sickness line, telephone number
and leave a voice mail message at any time.
Our Attendance Officer will call you if your child is absent and we do not know the reason.
To help with the smooth running of the process, please ensure you follow the school’s procedure:
- Inform the school if your child is going to be absent from school because of a dental or medical appointment at least two days in advance of the appointment so the register can be marked appropriately
- Telephone the Absence Line before 8.45am if your child is unwell or has an emergency appointment. Please give an indication of approximately how many days you anticipate your child being absent from school.
- Provide a doctor’s certificate if the illness is prolonged and the school request a copy.
- Advise the school if your child is going to be late for any reason.
If a child is ill during the school day they will be taken to the School Office, where they will be seen by a designated member of staff. A decision will then be taken whether or not to contact parents or carers.
Please inform the school if your child contracts an infectious or contagious disease; these include head-lice infestation, an occasional problem in school which can spread rapidly through classes unless treated, chicken pox, mumps and German measles (rubella), which can have serious implications for staff.
Punctuality
Children are required to attend school on time and registration starts at 8.45am prompt. Teachers record lateness in the registers and persistent lateness will be referred to the Education Welfare Officer.
Special Leave of Absence
The school holiday dates are published in advance and we therefore do not see any reason for parents and carers to take their children out of school during term time. Therefore, in the interests of your child's education, the Headteacher will not normally be prepared to grant leave-of-absence for family holidays or holidays with friends or youth organisations in school time. There is strong DfE evidence showing that children who are absent from school for any length of time, do not make good progress or achieve their full potential. If a family feels leave in term time is unavoidable then written details must be provided via the leave of absence form below. This should be done at least 2 weeks in advance, so that appropriate consideration can be given and a response made.
Signing in/out procedure
Any child arriving at school after 08:55 am will have missed the morning registration mark and must be signed in by their parent or carer at Reception, giving a reason for the late arrival. Any child who has to leave school during school hours for a medical appointment or similar bona fida reason, must have a note requesting this. This should be addressed to the class teacher, who will pass it to the school office. Children leaving school during the school day must be signed out at Reception by their parent or carer.
Dental and Medical appointments
Parents and carers are asked where possible not to arrange these during school sessions, except in cases of urgency, so that considerable interference with school work is avoided. Please do not keep children out of school for the whole day unless absolutely necessary.