Attendance and Absence
Attendance
Regular attendance at school is important. It can help children to learn and help in building successful relationships. As such, we monitor attendance thoroughly, and share this information with the local authority. We understand, of course, that there are many perfectly valid reasons why children cannot and should not attend school at times. However, absences deemed as unexceptional ie: term time holidays, birthdays, car troubles etc.. and frequent lateness are not valid reasons, and will be marked as unauthorised in our registers.
NB: it is a legal requirement that your child attends school each day.
For your information, children who fall below 90% attendance are categorised as a persistent absentee. This also includes not being registered on time at the start of the day.
Absence reporting
If your child is unable to attend school due to illness, please contact the school office to report their absence as soon as possible, preferably prior to morning registration.
You can phone (01794 340407) and leave us a message or send us an email: schooloffice@awbridge.uwinat.co.uk
Please include your child's name, class and the reason for absence.
In line with our safeguarding policies and the legal requirement for children to be in school, we will need to telephone and/or email all contacts if a child is not at school and their absence hasn't been reported. Failure to reach a guardian could result in a home visit.
Illness
All children will feel unwell from time to time. Our general rule is that if your child feels unwell and is acting in a way that isn't "normal" for them (ie: sleeping more, not eating, high temperature), then they should remain home until well enough to return to school. However, there are many illnesses, such as the common cold where your child may just not feel right, but it isn't necessary to stay at home. In these circumstances, please support us by encouraging resilience in your children and by letting them know that sometimes we don’t always feel ourselves.
We have a policy that if your child has either sickness (vomiting - not just feeling sick) or diarrhea, then they must not return to school until 48 hours after their last episode. This is regardless of whether they are well or not as it is to avoid the spread of infection.
If you are unsure about whether your child should attend school, the links below provide valuable information about common illnesses in children. They also advise on how long children should stay off school.
Is my child too unwell for school? Is my child too ill for school? (NHS)
Children can come to school when they have been prescribed medication for an illness, as staff are able to administer this. We will need you to fill in a form with details when you bring in the medicine.
Please make sure any medication has a pharmacy label detailing your child's name, dosage and how frequently they should have it.
We are unable to administer over the counter medications and request that children are not given their own medicines to take in school.
Absence request forms
For any period of planned absence, you will need to fill out a Request to "Authorise Absence from School due to Exceptional Circumstances" form and return it to the school office. We can send you this electronically or send it home via your child.
NB: No holidays will be authorised and absences of 10 sessions and more will be subject to a penalty notice.
Penalty notices:
There are new rules for attendance as of August 2024, please see the below poster:
Penalty notices can also be issued for persistent lateness when registration is missed, as this is classed as missing a session. Please do ensure your children are in school on time. As a reminder: school doors open at 8.50am and the register is taken at 9am. Beyond this time, your child will be classed as late (L). Beyond 9.15am, your child will be marked as missing registration (U).
Please see our attendance policies for further information:
Appointments
Parents will be expected to make all routine medical or dental appointments outside of school hours wherever possible. Where this is not possible (ie: hospital or emergency appointments), parents will be expected to obtain approval for their child’s absence to attend such appointments as far in advance as is practicable and where necessary, proof of appointments can be requested. Parents will be responsible for ensuring their child misses only the amount of time necessary to attend the appointment.
Please bear in mind that appointments during the school day are disruptive for children and staff.