Attendance

Every day at school matters to your child's education, academic success and future life chances. The law says that parents are legally responsible for making sure their children attend school regularly. Research has shown that poor attendance is linked to lower exam grades. Children who attend school regularly also have better social skills and stronger friendship groups.

Key Information

We hope that you find the information below useful. If you have any queries or worries about your child's attendance then please contact Miss Williams, our Child and Family Support Officer, who will be happy to advise you.

When should I keep my child off school?

Common sense is your best guide when deciding whether your child needs to stay at home. As a general rule, if your child complains of minor ailments (slight sore throat, slight cold or cough, minor aches and pains, slight headache) they should come to school. If their condition worsens during the day, the school will contact you.

If your child has a slight ear or tooth ache they should come to school. If pain persists they should see a doctor or dentist.

Do not send a child to school with an unexplained rash until you have consulted a doctor.

For further guidance, please refer to the NHS website.

Sickness and Diarrhoea

Your child should not come to school if they have sickness or diarrhea. Once they have been clear for 48 hours, they should return to school.

COVID-19

As we enter the colder months when coughs and colds usually emerge, we wanted to clarify the school's approach to COVID-19.

In line with NHS guidance, we recommend that children stay home from school if they have a high temperature or feel too unwell to carry out their normal routine. Once they are better, they should return to school. If your child has mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat or mild cough, and they feel well enough, they can come to school.

Children are no longer required to do a COVID-19 rapid lateral flow test if they have symptoms.

However, if a child has a positive COVID-19 test result, NHS guidance suggests they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day they took the test, if they can. After 3 days, if they feel well and do not have a high temperature, the risk of passing the infection on to others is much lower and they can return to school.

Reporting Absence to School

Contact the school on the first day of absence either by telephone or by email by 9:15am.

Keep the school informed if your child is absent for more than one day.

Provide medical evidence for absences in the form of appointment cards, texts or pharmacy receipts dated for the absence period for medicine relating to the absence.

Contact

01702 468048

office@hjs.porticoacademytrust.co.uk

Late Arrivals

Being punctual is very important and gives your child a good start to the day. If your child arrives later than 8:50am they will need to enter the school via the main entrance and will be given a late mark in the register.

Click here to view more details about our school day and identify your child's nearest entrance to school in the morning.

Leave of Absence

Please submit a leave of absence form for any absence requests (such a holiday, weddings) during term time. Forms can be collected from the school office or printed from the link below. Forms must be completed and handed in to the office at least one month prior to the leave for consideration by the Head Teacher. Please attach supporting evidence to the form, identifying the exceptional nature of the leave. If your child is absent without permission granted by the Head Teacher the leave will be recorded as unauthorised.

The current law does not give any entitlement to parents to take their child out of school during term time. The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 prohibits Head Teachers granting leave of absence to a pupil except where an application has been made in advance and the Head Teacher considers there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application. If the leave is granted, the Head Teacher can also determine the number of days the child may reasonably be away from school. All applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Taking your child out of school during term time could be detrimental to your child’s education progress. A pupil who takes 10 days absence will only attain 94.7% attendance for the school year. 10 days absence also means the pupil will miss 50 hours of education.

If the absence is not authorised and the leave is taken, schools are now required to inform the Local Authority Access and Inclusion School Attendance Team. In August 2024, the government document 'Working Together to Improve School Attendance' was published in which guidelines were set out for the issuing of Penalty Notices in relation to unauthorised absence from school. The link to this document can be found below.