Good School attendance gives your child the opportunity of success and helps develop skills for life. Your child should attend school every day unless there is an unavoidable cause like illness. Missing school damages a pupil’s learning, and disrupts routines. Pupils should never miss school for reasons like shopping orbirthdays.
Missing school seriously affects life opportunities
Attendance is very important to us here at Northiam Primary, and we would like every child to achieve 96%-100% each academic year. We do not expect children to come to school if they are genuinely unwell, however, if they are complaining of feeling unwell but do not display any other symptoms (i.e. temperature, looking pale or flushed etc.), please consider sending them to school. We know they are young children, and if they are unwell at school we will send them home.
Sending them to school will help the children learn not only the things we learn what we teach at school, but when it is and is not appropriate to stay at home when they are employees in the future! Think to yourself, if it was you, would you really take a day off work? (This is particularly true with colds when we all feel worse in the morning!).
If your child is ill, please ensure you call the school office on the first day of absence so that your child’s absence record can be kept up to date. Failure to do so will result in you receiving a phone call asking why your child is absent. If we do not hear from you about why your child is absent from school then it will be recorded as Unauthorised. You can report your child’s absence by either calling the office.
Illness Guidelines
We have many queries on how long children should be off school after an illness. Below are guidelines we are required to follow on some of the common illnesses.
| Sickness & Diarrhoea | child should be kept off school for 48 hours from the last occurrence of sickness or diarrhoea. |
| Conjunctivitis | once treatment has started and there is no stickiness on the eyes. |
| Chickenpox | when the last spot has dried up. |
| High Temperature | Do not send your child in with a high fever even after administering medication. |
| Headlice | Please ensure your child has been treated and has no live lice. |
| Impetigo | 48 hours after treatment and no weeping. |
Holidays in school time
In terms of holidays, the granting of permission to take holidays during term time is at the school’s discretion. Applications must be made in writing. We will consider the child’s attendance and their progress in school when making my decision. Where attendance is low, permission will not be granted. We are always sympathetic to the dilemma many families face, given the extortionate increases holiday companies impose during the school holidays, but the education and progress of the child must have first priority. We know that many of you are concerned about fines if you decide to take a holiday which is not authorised. The County line is that where a child has 10 consecutive unauthorised absences, (one week), they will impose a fine which is £50 per child and £50 per adult, (even if the parents are separated). If the fine is not paid within 28 days, it is doubled to £100.