Attendance Procedures
Children are expected to attend school every day to make sure that they are getting the most out of their education. Good attendance at school is incredibly important for children to achieve great educational outcomes and reach their full potential.
Absence reporting
If your child is too unwell to attend, then please email the school at absence@bishopchavasseschool.org.uk by 8.45am to provide details of:
- Child's name
- Class
- Date of absence
- A brief description of the illness
We recognise that there may be other medical or dental appointments that take place during school time. Wherever practical or possible, these should be arranged for school holidays but where this is not possible then the school must be notified of the child’s absence, in advance and proof of the appointment must be provided.
We offer a supportive approach to attendance and encourage families to come and speak with us if there are any barriers to your child attending school.
Below is guidance for to show if your child can come to school/how long you may need to keep your child off from school with the below medical conditions:
Attendance Matters
Other term time absences
The law requires children of school age to be in full-time education during the 38 weeks of the school year. It is highly disruptive to your child’s education if they are absent due to family holidays or other non-urgent reasons. In addition, there is then a knock-on impact on other children in the classroom because teaching time needs to be spent with your child upon their return to help them catch up with what they have missed.
For all other absences a written case must be made for consideration by the Headteacher, at least two weeks in advance.
Parents should note that authorisation is only expected to be granted in exceptional circumstances. If absence is unauthorised then this is counted as truancy and, in line with local schools, a fixed penalty notice will be served for unauthorised absences of 5 days or more.
We recognise that in addition to the situations above there may be genuine short-term domestic or family emergencies and these will be dealt with sensitively and using common sense on a case-by-case basis.
As of August 2024 Kent County Council’s guidance on attendance has been changed. Penalty notices can now be issued for 10 sessions of unauthorised absences including lateness in a rolling period of 10 weeks. A combination of these absences over a 10 school week can be from a period of different terms and/or school years. Schools can apply for a maximum of 2 Penalty Notices in any 3-year rolling period for unauthorised absences. On a 3rd period of unauthorised absence the school will contact Kent County Council who will prepare an order for prosecution. Penalty Notices are issued to each parent of each child and the amount will be £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. If a second penalty notice is issues within a rolling 3-year period, then the charge will be a flat rate of £160 per parent per child if paid within 28 days. In both instances failure to pay the penalty in full at the end of the 28-day period may result in prosecution by the Kent PRU and Attendance Service Courts Team who will consider the care for prosecution.
Lateness
Parents must make every effort to ensure their child is in school and ready to learn by the time registration takes place at 8.45am. It is disruptive to both your child and everyone else if a teacher’s time has to be spent going over the beginning of lessons more than once. Parents whose children are habitually late into school can expect to be contacted to arrange an attendance meeting with the Admissions and Attendance officer and the Headteacher to find out what more can be done to ensure their children attend school on time. The gates will close at 8.55am and from this point your child will be considered late. From 9.10am if you are bringing your child in late this will be marked as an unauthorised lateness. If your child has 10 of the unauthorised lateness’s over a period of 10 rolling weeks this can result in a fine being submitted to Kent County Council.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families has produced a leaflet setting out the responsibilities of parents in ensuring that their children attend school, a copy of which can be found by clicking here.
