Children lead busy and active lives, and sometimes they do become unwell. Deciding whether your child is well enough to come into school can be tricky, not least since not all illnesses require time of school.
The following link contains the advice we follow as a school when making recommendations for parents. Please note, we do ask parents to keep children off school for 48hrs following the last bout of vomiting or diarrhoea to safeguard other pupils and staff from contracting the same illness and preventing an outbreak!
In several cases, once a child is receiving treatment, they are able to return to school if well enough to do so. Please speak to your medical practitioner if in any doubt.
If your child's attendance is lower than school expectations (95%), you may be requested to provide evidence of illness in the form of a medical appointment confirmation text/email, or prescription in the name of the child covering the period of absence as closely as possible.
Medical and dental appointments should be made outside of school hours. Where this is not possible, your child should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary for the appointment. The school should be informed in advance of any medical or dental appointments taken during school hours in writing. Otherwise the absence may be recorded as ‘unauthorised absence’.
Family Holidays during Term Time
Parents are not permitted to take children out of school for family holidays during term time. The 2013 School Attendance Regulations prohibit any school from authorising leave of absence for holidays except in exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional Circumstances are defined as:
- One off (never to be repeated) events/circumstance AND
- Cannot reasonably be avoided during term time
Each case will be considered individually, and if the Head teacher grants a leave request, it will be for them to determine how much of the absence is recorded as authorised. This leave is unlikely, however, to be granted for the purposes of a family holiday since these are not exceptional events.
Parents can be fined for taking their child on holiday during term time.
The request for a Leave of Absence must be in writing, and submitted at least 2 weeks prior the leave is to take place. The appropriate form to use is below (Leave of Absence Request Form). The Headteacher will decide whether the leave of absence can be authorised, and will inform them of the outcome by return of the form.
Even where there are exceptional circumstances, no holiday requests will be granted during any period of statutory external tests and checks (the month of May for Year 2 and Year 6 pupils, the month of June for Year 1 and Year 4 pupils).