Attendance is recorded twice a day, morning and afternoon.
Contact Procedures
If a child is absent from school, parents are required to phone or email the school office by 9.30am on the first day. If no telephone call or email is received, parents will automatically receive a text message asking them to phone the school.
If an absence is planned, please inform the head teacher in writing. If at the end of the school day, for any reason, a child is not collected at his/her usual meeting place, he/she must return to the building and report to the office immediately. Please ensure your child understands this arrangement.
Please make every effort to avoid family holidays during term time as this disrupts the child’s education and reduces learning time. The head teacher can approve the absence from school for a family holidays in certain situations, for example, in traumatic domestic circumstances. Please discuss your plans for holidays with the head teacher. If the head teacher does not give permission, it will be recorded an an unauthorised absence.
The head teacher may also exercise discretion when a parent can prove that work commitments make a family holiday impossible during school holiday times. Normally, your employer will need to provide evidence of your work commitments. Absence approved by the head teacher on this basis is regarded as authorised absence.
Parents from minority ethnic religious communities may request that their children be permitted to be absent from school to celebrate recognised religious events. Absence approved by the head teacher on this basis is regarded as authorised absence. Extended leave can also be granted on request for families returning to their country of origin for cultural or care reasons.
A supportive approach is taken to unexplained absence. However the education authority has legal powers to write to, interview or prosecute parents, or refer pupils to the Reporter to the Children’s Panel, if necessary.
