School attendance is both a legal and a moral obligation. Unless parents have chosen to home educate their child/ren and have followed the necessary steps to formalise this arrangement, then school attendance is compulsory. The legal position is outlined below and parents/carers are reminded that poor attendance impacts a child’s capacity to learn and to socialise with peers. Pupils with good attendance/punctuality are more likely to succeed than those with limited access to teaching. Please support your child to reach their full potential by ensuring punctuality and optimum attendance.
Section 30 of the 1980 Education Act lays a duty on every parent of a child of ‘school age’ to ensure that their child attends school regularly. Attendance is recorded twice a day; morning and afternoon.
Regulation 7 of The Education (School and Placing Information) (Scotland) Amendment etc Regulations 1993 requires each child’s absence from school to be recorded in the school register as authorised: i.e. approved by the authority, or unauthorised: i.e. unexplained by the parent (truancy) or excluded from school.
Parents/guardians do not have the automatic right to take their child out of school without permission during term time. The Head of Establishment can only authorise time off during term-time in exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional circumstances include:
- short-term parental placement abroad
- family returning to its country of origin for family reasons
- the period immediately after an illness or injury
- a period of serious or critical illness of a close relative
- a domestic crisis, which causes serious disruption to the family home, causing temporary relocation
Time off during term time for the following reasons is not acceptable and will be recorded as unauthorised absence:
- availability of cheap holidays or desired accommodation
- holidays which overlap the beginning or end of term.
Clearly with no explanation from the parent, the absence is unauthorised.
Unexplained absence will be investigated. The authority has the power to write to, interview or prosecute parents/ guardians, or to refer pupils to the Reporter of the Children’s Hearings if necessary.
If you child has an appointment during school hours – e.g. Doctor/dentist, he/she MUST be collected by a parent or guardian.
If your child is going to be absent from school/nursery, please contact the school office BEFORE 9am and give a reason for his/her absence. You should confirm the reason for the absence and indicate when the child is likely to return to school/nursery. If we do not hear from you, our monitoring system will mean that you will receive a call at home or work to check that your child is safe. This is recommended procedure in terms of Child Protection.
