Absence and attendance
Reporting absence
If your child is ill, you MUST call the school as soon as possible on 796193.
Children should attend school even if...
Please see the links below on the most up to date advice from the NHS with regard to illnesses and conditions that affect children.
This includes advice on when children should still attend school and any limitations on when not to attend.
Is my child too ill for school?
For advice on staying healthy use the link below.
Medical appointments
Please ensure that any routine appointments or check-ups are booked for out of school times wherever possible.
We appreciate that it is difficult to book appointments especially if they are required urgently and we know you don't want your child to miss anytime in school. If appointment times are early in the morning please ensure you bring your child in to register first before collecting them to take to the appointment. Children should then return to school as soon as possible afterwards, if they are well enough following any treatment.
Evidence of all medical appointments should be sent to:
attendance@thanet.hull.sch.uk
Absence from School for Exceptional Circumstances
IMPORTANT: Please read the following information and regulations, before completing the form below.
Information for Parents
There is no longer a provision in law for Headteachers to authorise an absence for the purpose of a term time holiday.
You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly. This has been defined by the Supreme Court as ‘in accordance with the rules prescribed by the school’ meaning attending every occasion available unless authorised by the Head Teacher. There is, however, a discretionary power held by Headteachers to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances. Please note this is not an entitlement.
Please note that supporting documents to aid decision making must be submitted at the time of your request for absence.
Any unauthorised absence will be recorded on your child’s attendance records. This may result in legal proceedings against you, either through a Penalty Notice or the Magistrates’ Court.
Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003) the local authority and schools have statutory powers to tackle poor school attendance and/or unauthorised absences. An unauthorised absence is any absence that the Headteacher has not given permission for or where an explanation has not been provided by the parent. If your child accrues 10 sessions of unauthorised absence, you may be liable for a penalty notice (one day’s absence equals two sessions and a five-day absence is equal to 10 sessions etc.).
Penalty Notices will be used as a deterrent to prevent a pattern of unauthorised absences developing.
Parents must complete a request for exceptional leave form and submit this to the school, allowing for sufficient time to enable the school to consider the request and inform the parent of the decision.
Fines are issued for unauthorised absence of 5 or more days and each school day is divided into 2 registration periods. For example, if your child is absent for one day this equals 2 sessions, and a five-day absence is equal to 10 sessions.
- If your request is declined and you take your child out of school each person with day-to-day care of the child(ren) may be issued with a £160 penalty notice if paid within 28 days, this reduces to £80 if paid within 21 days.
- Where it is deemed appropriate to issue a second penalty notice within 3 years of the first penalty notice, the second penalty notice will be charged at a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
- If a third penalty notice referral is received within a 3-year period, a further penalty notice fine cannot be issued and legal action will be considered.
Support and guidance on attendance is always available and if you have any questions about this, or if you need help to achieve an improvement, please contact your child’s school to discuss this.
We advise that you do not plan for your child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement from their school first.
Each application for leave will be considered on a case by case basis and on its own merits.
Where applications for leave of absence are made in advance and refused, the child will be required to be in school on the dates set out in the application. If the child is absent during this period, it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence, which may result in legal action being taken against the parent(s), by way of a Fixed Penalty Notice.
Failure to make an application for leave in advance can also result in a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued to the parent(s).
We greatly appreciate parental support to reduce the total amount of days lost due to holidays. We are committed to working in partnership with you to enable your child to reach their academic targets and to support their social development. For this to happen we need to keep individual attendance as high as possible - we all need to play our part.
Your child's progress, both academically and socially, is our shared priority.
Please note that completed leave of absence request forms must be accompanied by a supporting letter giving full details of the request.
Attendance
Last years figures
