Expectations

Cockton Hill Junior School places high importance on attendance and punctuality. We teach our children the importance of attending school regularly and on time. If your child’s attendance falls below 97% then the attendance team will be in touch with you to offer support and work with you to improve your child’s attendance. This will also be the case for those children who are persistently late or who have an emerging pattern of attendance over a time period.

Absence

If your child is absent from school, it is vital that you inform the school on the morning of the first day of absence, via phone or contact in the school office.  Absence without explanation will be counted as unauthorised leading to prompt contact attempts from school including texts, phone calls and uninformed visit from school staff. All absences must be accounted for so it is important that you keep the school informed of all absence.

If your child arrives at school late please enter via the main entrance as all late arrivals must sign in via the electronical system in the main reception. Lateness will be also be monitored by the Attendance Team who will be in touch with you to offer support and work with you to improve your child’s punctuality.

Illness

Please refer to the public health exclusions to indicate the time period an individual should not attend a setting to reduce the risk of transmission during the infectious stage. This is different to ‘exclusion’ as used in an educational sense.

Persistent Absence

From September 2015, the Department of Education threshold for Persistence Absence was set at 10% therefore pupils with attendance at 90% or below level will be contacted by the Attendance Team at school alongside the Local Authority. Parents of a child who fail in their duty to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school commit an offence under Section 444 of the Education Act.

Leave of Absence

There have been changes made by Government regarding leave of absence. This applies to all schools and the new legislation came into force on 1 September 2013.

The amendments to the 2006 regulations now make clear that the Governing Body may not grant any leave of absence during term-time unless there are exceptional circumstances.  The Head Teacher will determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the exceptional circumstances leave is granted. A written application for leave of absence using the schools form LOA Request must be submitted to the Head Teacher via the School office. This is will processed by the Attendance Team and a meeting arranged to discuss the request.