Attendance
What do I do when my child is ill?
If your child is ill, you must call the school as soon as possible to let us know.
There is an answerphone for you to leave a message if the line is busy. Please remember to give your child’s name, class and reason for absence.
The link below is a useful guide to help decide if children should still attend school.
NHS - is-my-child-too-ill-for-school
For advice on staying healthy use the link below.
What if they need an appointment?
Whilst we appreciate that medical appointments are difficult to organise, especially when they are of an urgent nature, we would ask that any routine appointments or check-ups be scheduled for out of school time where possible.
This helps us manage time effectively in school and direct our resources where they can have the maximum impact on learning, rather than ‘catching up’.
How do I request time away from school (leave of absence) for my child?
Information for Parents
There is no longer a provision in law for Headteachers to authorise an absence for the purpose of a term time holiday.
You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly. This has been defined by the Supreme Court as ‘in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school’ meaning attending every occasion available unless authorised by the Head Teacher. There is, however, a discretionary power held by Headteachers to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances. Please note this is not an entitlement.
Please note that supporting documents to aid decision making must be submitted at the time of your request for absence.
Any unauthorised absence will be recorded on your child’s attendance records. This may result in legal proceedings against you, either through a Penalty Notice or the Magistrates’ Court.
Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003) the local authority and schools have statutory powers to tackle poor school attendance and/or unauthorised absences. An unauthorised absence is any absence that the Headteacher has not given permission for or where an explanation has not been provided by the parent. If your child accrues 10 sessions of unauthorised absence, you may be liable for a penalty notice (one day’s absence equals two sessions and a five-day absence is equal to 10 sessions etc.).
Penalty Notices will be used as a deterrent to prevent a pattern of unauthorised absences developing.
Parents must complete a request for exceptional leave form and submit this to the school, allowing for sufficient time to enable the school to consider the request and inform the parent of the decision.
Fines are issued for unauthorised absence of 5 or more days and each school day is divided into 2 registration periods. For example, if your child is absent for one day this equals 2 sessions, and a five-day absence is equal to 10 sessions.
- If your request is declined and you take your child out of school each person with day-to-day care of the child(ren) may be issued with a £160 penalty notice if paid within 28 days, this reduces to £80 if paid within 21 days.
- Where it is deemed appropriate to issue a second penalty notice within 3 years of the first penalty notice, the second penalty notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
- If a third penalty notice referral is received within a 3-year period, a further penalty notice fine cannot be issued and legal action will be considered.
Support and guidance on attendance is always available and if you have any questions about this, or if you need help to achieve an improvement, please contact your child’s school to discuss this.
We advise that you do not plan for your child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement from their school first.
Failure to make an application for leave in advance can also result in a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued to the parent(s).
We greatly appreciate parental support to reduce the total amount of days lost due to holidays. We are committed to working in partnership with you to enable your child to reach their academic targets and to support their social development. For this to happen we need to keep individual attendance as high as possible - we all need to play our part.
Your child’s progress, both academically and socially, is our shared priority.
Please complete the form below with as much notice as possible to allow further information to be gained, if required. Thank you.
What happens if we’re late to school?
We have become aware of an increasing number of pupils who are arriving late for school.
When pupils arrive late, they miss out on essential instructions given at the beginning of the lesson. This can significantly reduce achievement, regardless of academic ability. Children also feel awkward arriving to the classroom when everyone else is settled. Furthermore, when one pupil arrives late, it disrupts the entire class and the teacher, therefore, everyone’s education is comprised. School begins at 8:50am. The gates to school open at 8:35am.
It is a parent’s legal responsibility to ensure their children arrive at school on time. Please give yourselves plenty of time to travel, particularly to park your car safely.
If your child arrives late at school, he/she will have to be signed in and a parental explanation recorded. Persistent, severe or unexplained lateness can be classed as unauthorised absence and may be referred to the Local Authority. We will continue to monitor lateness and take action as necessary.
Is your child missing out?
Research has shown that regular attendance and good punctuality are crucial factors in students achieving their full potential in education. At Bilton Community Primary School we wish to work in partnership with parents and carers and so are seeking your full support in ensuring that your child attends school every day and on time. We are always pleased to work together with parents/carers in resolving any difficulties but we are also committed to improving attendance levels at school.
The target attendance figure for all pupils is a minimum of 97% attendance. Based on current attendance figures your child will be placed in one of the following groups below.
Bilton Community Primary School monitor pupils closely whose attendance is falling and will contact parents if a child’s attendance does not improve. As a parent/carer you are committing an offence if you fail to ensure that your child attends school regularly and punctually, even if they are missing school without your knowledge. It is important that parents/carers monitor single day’s absence, as these days soon add up to weeks.
Please visit the school policies page for a full copy of the school attendance policy.