Attendance, Absence and Illness Reporting
Reporting your child's absence due to illness
The school works with the Education Welfare Service and follows their guidelines for dealing with lateness and school absence. School must be informed of absence each day that your child is not attending. We have a voicemail service where you can leave a message, and we would ask that you let us know befor 9am. Any absence not explained is classed as unauthorised.
The telephone number of reporting school absences is 01606 668066, option 2.Please leave a voicemail and ensure you provide details of the reason for your child's absence. Please note that if a child is absent due to sickness or diarrhoea, they will be unable to return to school for 48 hours after their last episode to reduce the risk of illness spreading. Information on exclusion periods for other illnesses is available on the file download below.
NHS guidance on when to keep your child from school can be found on the link below:
Is my child too ill for school? - NHS
Covid Guidance
If your child has any of the symptoms below, please do not send them to school:
- High temperature - over 37.8
- New, continuous cough - this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours.
- A loss of, or change to, their sense of smell or taste - this means that they cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal.
Any child experiencing these symptoms should be kept off school and a PCR test should be arranged immediately. Please notify the school office through normal channels - either by telephoning on the number above, or by emailing [email protected] . The child should remain isolated until a negative PCR test result is received. Please inform the school of the result (either positive or negative) as soon as possible by emailing the admin addess above.
Typical symptoms of a cold, such as runny nose or sore throat, are not considered symptoms of coronavirus, and, as such, children do not need to be kept off school unless they are too unwell to attend.
The previous advice for remaining away from school for 48 hours for children presenting with sickness or diarrhea still applies.
Holiday or other absence reporting
The government discourages holidays taken when children should be inschool and we would ask that parents avoid booking family holidays during term time. If this is absolutely unavoidable, you should apply in writing on the "Leave of Absence" request form which can be downloaded here or is vailable from the school office. This should be submitted to school at least 2 weeks before the planned absence. Parents should let us know of any extenuating circumstances that have led to the request. Leave will only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
We would also request that non-urgent medical and dental appointments are made oustide of school hours.
Following an application for a Leave of Absence, parents will be advised in writing whether the leave has been authorised or not and whether the Local Authority will be notified and a Fixed Penalty Notice issued.