Attendance & Leave of Absence

If your child is going to be absent from school due to illness please contact the school office on each day of the absence. On occasion, evidence may be requested to help authorise the absence. 

If we have not received contact on the first day of your child's absence, we will:

• call the first emergency contact number

• call any other emergency contact numbers held if we have not been able to make contact

• send text or emails to all the numbers held on your child’s file asking you to contact school

If we receive no contact by midday, we will:

• carry out a home visit for safeguarding purposes

• call 111 if necessary to ask for a safe and well check if our home visit was unsuccessful

   

A pupil is defined by the Government as a ‘persistent absentee’ when they miss 10% or more schooling across the school year for any reason; this can be authorised or unauthorised absence. Absence at this level will cause considerable damage to any pupil’s education and we need the full support and co-operation of parents to resolve this. All pupils who have attendance levels of 90% or below are persistent absentees.

Penalty notices issued for absences from 2024/2025 school year and onwards:

New national legislation comes in to force on the 19th August 2024 regarding the issue of penalty notices for any unauthorised Leave of Absence. This new legislation is an attempt to improve school attendance. Unauthorised absences / Leave of Absence will no longer be looked at on an individual basis but over a period of time (three years).

Penalty notices in respect of the same child will now change to the following:

• The first penalty notice issued to a parent in respect of a pupil will increase to £80 per parent/ per child if paid within 21 days. This fine will increase to £160 per parent / per child between days 21 and 28. This will be for the first unauthorised penalty notice.

• The second unauthorised penalty notice will, within a three-year period, be £160 per parent / per child – if paid within 28 days. There is no reduced amount for paying early.

• The third and any further unauthorised LOA requests will not receive a penalty notice – the case will proceed to the Magistrates court for prosecution.

• This means that a maximum of two penalty notices will be issued (per parent, per child) within a three-year period. Once three years has elapsed since the first penalty notice was issued a further penalty notice can then be issued.

• The legislation also states that unauthorised absences can also be added together in a rolling period of 10 weeks. This means that separate unauthorised leave of absence requests can be added together and a penalty notice given.

The times of the school day are clearly communicated to parents on the website, in newsletters, on site or other appropriate means of communication. Parents/ carers must ensure they collect their children promptly- the school day finishes at 3:20/3:25pm (Nursery have separate session timings).

Parents/ carers must notify the school if there are any changes to their collection arrangements or if they are going to be late (by calling the office) so that staff can be informed and so that care can be arranged for the pupil.

If a pupil is not collected at the end of the school day or after attending after school clubs, staff will establish with the pupil what their understanding of the arrangement is and will attempt to contact anyone on the child’s emergency contact list (if parents/ carers are unavailable.)

If a parent has not made contact or arrived by 4:30pm or 20 minutes after the end of an after-school club, a further phone call will be made and where available, a message will be left to inform the parents that a referral is being made to Sandwell’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) if no call is received within 10 minutes.

If the child is still not collected and no contact is made by 4:40p.m. or 30 minutes after the end of an after school club, a referral will be made to MASH.

There are procedures in place to request an authorised leave of absence for your child during term time.

Please refer to the flow chart above for more detailed information before taking any leave from school. 

A meeting is required with Mrs Breckell or Mrs Lees in the first instance, then a LOA form has to be completed by parents to request the absence be authorised by the headteacher. You will be required to provide evidence for the request to be authorised. The headteacher's decision will be communicated with you. 

If the leave of absence request is denied and the leave is still taken the absence will be marked as unauthorised. School will then request that a penalty notice will be issued by the Local Authority if the criteria is met (see information in the section above about Penalty Notices) 

There are also procedures that school will follow if leave of absence is taken without permission, or without informing  the school first. 

We do not authorise term time family holidays. 

Sandwell Code of Conduct