Attendance – Cheetwood Primary School

Attendance

Our Attendance target this year is

If your child is absent from school, please inform the school office by phoning: 0161 834 2104

There are a number of reasons your child’s absence may be authorised:

Excluded (no alternative provision made)

Parents/Carers may be asked to provide medical evidence where there are repeated absences due to the reported illness. This will usually be in the form of an appointment card, prescription, doctor’s note etc.

Religious Observance

Parents/Carers are advised where possible to make medical and dental appointments outside of the school day. If this is not possible, pupils should attend school before the appointment or after they have attended their appointment. Parents/Caters should show the appointment card to school.

Other authorised circumstances

This relates to occasions where there is cause for unavoidable absence due to exceptional circumstances, for example bereavement of a close family member (no more than 2 days) or visiting a Parent/Carer in prison or part time timetable agreed as part of a reintegration package.

The school makes the decision as to whether the circumstances are exceptional, not the Parent/Carer.

Excluded (no alternative provision made)

Exclusion from attending school is counted as an authorised absence. The pupil’s class teacher will make arrangements for work to be sent home.

Religious Observance

We acknowledge and celebrate the multi-faith nature of our school and recognise that, on some occasions, religious festivals may fall during term time. Governors have the discretion to grant up to a maximum of 3 days absence per school year for religious observance. Governors make the decision on an annual basis about how many days’ absence to grant. Parents/Carers are requested to make an Absence of Leave form that they hand to the Headteacher if their child is to be absent from school for religious observance before the religious event.

There are a number of reasons your child’s absence will not be authorised:

A pupil’s or family member’s birthday
Shopping for school uniform
Having a haircut
Closure of a sibling’s school for INSET or other purposes
“Couldn’t get up”
Illness where the child is considered well enough to attend school
Thought the school term did not start until the following day
Leave of absence in term time

An amendment was made to the Education Regulations 2006, which came into force on the 1st September 2013. Parents/Carers do not have any right to remove their child from school during term time for any reason. Therefore, any leave of absence requests made during term time will not be authorised.

Persistant Absence

If your child drops to 90% attendance or less it is logged as a persistent absence.

For more information please see the Attendance and Punctuality policy on the Policies page of the website.

Safeguarding Notice