It is very important that children attend school regularly and on time. Children who are frequently absent from school or who are regularly late do not make the progress they should. Please don’t keep children away unless they are too unwell to attend school.
Parents /Carers should inform the school office of the reasons for absence by telephone, email, text or in person on the first day that their child is absent. Verbal messages from children and/or friends are not acceptable. Please call 0117 3772840 to report an absence.
The school office will investigate any unexplained absences by contacting Parents/Carers by phone or by text on the first day of absence.
By law, children have to attend school every day unless they are unwell. The Head Teacher has the authority to allow a child to be absent from school in exceptional circumstances.
We know it can sometimes be difficult to decide whether your child needs to stay at home if they are feeling unwell. The NHS has produced guidance to help parents and carers make the right decision: Is my child too ill for school?
Our Attendance Policy can be downloaded here.
To request a term time 'exceptional circumstance' absence, please download and complete a 'request for absence form'. For additional guidance or a paper copy of the form, contact the school office.
The Department for Education have specified that Schools can only authorise absence for “exceptional” circumstances and so holidays in term time will not normally be authorised. Unauthorised absence may result in the issue of a penalty notice. Guidance is provided in the Bristol City Council Education Welfare leaflet 'School Attendance'. A copy of this leaflet is available here together with a description of Penalty Notices that can be issued.
Parents/carers commit an offence if a child does not attend school regularly and the absence is not agreed by the school (i.e. the absence is unauthorised). A pupil's unauthorised absence from school could result in one of the following:
1. Penalty Notice. The penalty is £60 payable (per parent, per child) within 21 days,
rising to £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days. A Penalty Notice is an alternative to
prosecution; it does not require a court appearance, but still aims to improve school
attendance. Failure to pay may result in prosecution.
2. Prosecution. Under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996. Prosecution could result
in a criminal record and fines up to £2500 and/or 3 months imprisonment. A range of
other disposals are also available such as Parenting Orders or Community Sentences.
For further details, please refer to the Bristol City Council leaflet here.
Persistent Absence
Persistent absence is when a child's attendance at school falls below 90%. We have a duty to ensure that children are attending school regularly and to support families with improving attendance. We do this through weekly tracking of all children's attendance. When attendance starts to become a concern we will notify you by text, letter or in some cases invite you in for a meeting to discuss. Whilst we understand that there are genuine reasons why a child might not be in school, it is important that we work together to ensure that children are not missing learning time.
