Sickness & absence – Whole school
At the start of the new term we are taking the opportunity to remind parents of our school policies regarding sickness and absence. All the school policies can be found on our website here and there is also a list of FAQ's and other information in our How-to Guide for parents here.
Cancelling lunch
We have to pay for all meals and this means all that are booked on a given day, even if they are not eaten.
It is, therefore, really important that if your child is absent from school, and they have a school lunch booked you please remember to cancel this. You can log in and cancel the lunch yourself from home up to 8.55am, but if you just mention that their lunch needs to be cancelled when you call in to report their absence we can do this in school up to 9.45am.
If meals are not cancelled, as well as the school being charged, the lunch will also be delivered to school by Dolce and not eaten adding to food waste.
Similarly, if your child decides to bring a packed lunch, and you have already ordered school lunch then this should be cancelled.
Sickness
If your child is absent from school through illness, we ask that you call before 9.30am on the first morning of their absence and leave a message on the voicemail option 1. If your child is likely to be absent for longer than 3 days we would ask that you remain in contact to update us.
If your child vomits or has diarrhoea then they must not return to school for 48 hours after the last episode.
There is a list of common childhood illnesses with details of any exclusion periods at the bottom of the How-to Guide page on the school website.
Absence for medical appointments
Our Attendance for Learning policy states: When making medical appointments, every effort must be made to ensure appointments are outside school hours, but we acknowledge that this is not always possible when the medical need is urgent. Medical appointments must be accompanied by an appointment letter or a screenshot if the appointment confirmation was sent through text message.
Absence for routine dental/medical/optical appointments during school time will not be authorised. By ‘routine’ we mean check-up appointments that can be planned for out of school hours (not ones that are allocated by the medical profession such as hospital appointments with a consultant).
We ask that you inform as early as possible of your child's expected absence due to a medical appointment. This should ideally be by email with the confirmation attached.
Absence for other reasons e.g. family holiday
From September 1st 2013 the government amended the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 to remove references to family holiday and to make clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Before considering applying for leave of absence for their child or children, parents/carers must apply using the ‘Request to authorise term time leave of absence due to exceptional circumstances’ form which can be downloaded from the school website here or you can request a copy from the office. This form must be received by us at least 30 days before the planned leave (no less than a month). Parents are strongly advised to discuss the proposed absence with the school before completing the form. The school does acknowledge that in some instances, such as funerals, it may not be possible to complete the form 30 days before the absence. In these instances the absence would be authorised.
