Attendance

Our mission is to work together as a community to empower all children to ‘Reach for Success’ at Houndsfield, at secondary school and beyond. This is underpinned by our values of Respect, Equality, Achievement, Courage and Honesty.

School starts at 8.45am and finishes at 3.00pm every day for children in Reception to Year 6. Nursery and Terrific Twos have separate arrangements.

Regular and punctual attendance helps to ensure our children are happy in school and achieving their full potential. Routine habits of work, formed when young, lay good foundations for future education and for the adult world of responsibilities and employment. Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and frequent absence will seriously affect their learning. Any pupil’s absence or late arrival disrupts teaching routines and so may affect the learning of others in the same class.

Parents and carers have the responsibility to:

• Bring their children to school every day and on time;
• Collect their children at the end of the school day on time;
• Impress upon their children the importance of attending school regularly and the need to observe the school’s code of conduct regarding behaviour, code of dress, homework etc;
• Work in partnership with the school to resolve issues which may lead to poor attendance;
• Ensure they are aware of the attendance policy of the school;
• Notify the school regarding absence on the first day of absence with a valid reason;
• Ensure dental and doctors’ appointments are taken outside of school hours where possible; hospital appointments will be authorised if a copy of the appointment letter is received;
• Ensure that holidays are not taken during term time;
• Make applications for exceptional leave in writing, giving the reason for the request;
• Contact the Attendance Officer if there are issues getting their child to school on time.

Reasons for Absence

Holidays and extended periods of absence for travel overseas

• Holidays and extended periods of absence for travel overseas will not be authorised under any circumstances. The absence will be marked as unauthorised on the register;
• Requests for holiday during term time must still be put in writing to the Headteacher giving the reasons why the holiday cannot be taken during the normal school holidays. Evidence will be required to support the request. The Headteacher will liaise with the Attendance Officer and look at each case individually before reaching a decision;
• The Headteacher is the only person who can authorise term time leave;
• Only the school, not parents, decides on how to classify any absence;
• Parents who take their children on term time holiday or overseas for an extended time without permission from the Headteacher or who take unauthorised term time holiday are at risk of a Penalty Notice being issued.

Medical or Dental Appointments

• Medical Appointments should be kept outside of school time unless it is very urgent. Medical evidence should be provided e.g. appointment cards/letters, prescriptions, prescribed medicine containers, GP notes. We expect that the child will only be absent from school during the time of their appointment and not for the full day.

Bereavement/Exceptional Circumstances

• Special consideration will be given by the Headteacher in exceptional circumstances. The Headteacher will liaise with the Attendance Officer and look at each case individually before reaching a decision.

The following reasons are deemed unacceptable for absence from school:

• Minor symptoms of illness such as: mild cold, cough, runny nose, a bit of a headache, tummy ache as the school will always contact parents/carers if this develops into anything more;
• Tiredness;
• Birthdays;
• Shopping;
• family days out;
• meeting relatives;
• car breakdowns;
• bad weather;
• waiting for a delivery person.
• If a sibling, parent or carer is unwell, arrangements need to be made so that a well-child is not prevented from attending school.

Attendance at Houndsfield

Parents attendance guide Turkish

The document below indicates the procedures we will follow if your child’s attendance drops below our school target of 96%.

Attendance flow chart

Attendance Policy – AAT Sept 24