Absence Procedures:

 

Please telephone/email or contact the school office via MyEd as soon as you know your child will be absent stating the reason for non attendance - please do not leave a message saying they are unwell, please be specific, eg stomach bug, heavy cold.

 

Office staff check all class registers between 9.05am and 9.15am on a daily basis, to identify those pupils who are absent. Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent, we initiate the first day contact procedures. If no message is left with the school office we will telephone in turn each of the contacts on the list provided by the parents, if we are still unable to get confirmation as to why the child is not at school we will proceed to a welfare check (this is a visit to the home address), this is carried out by the senior staff at Lady Seaward's or the Educational Welfare Officer (EWO), if we are still unable to confirm the child's welfare we will call 101 to report the child as missing. This is the school’s duty of care and safeguarding for your child.

Holiday Requests During Term Time:

 

Schools are only allowed, by law, to authorise non-medical absences if requested in advance by a parent with whom the child normally resides. A school can only authorise such a request if they are satisfied that there are "Exceptional Circumstances" which apply. However, even if there are exceptional circumstances, schools can still consider any other relevant factors such as previous attendance rates, the ability of the pupil to catch-up on missed work and the wider impact of missing the specified period of time.

 

Devon County Council advise schools not to authorise such request if the pupil's education is likely to be significantly impacted upon.

 

Please be aware:

 

If the request is unauthorised by the school, a penalty notice may be issued by Devon County Council. A penalty notice offers a parent the opportunity of dealing with a potential offence without going to court, by paying a penalty. If parents can't afford to pay, or for any other reason do not take the offer of paying the notice within a set time, then the case will proceed to a magistrates court. The provision of penalty notices is set Regulations and the amount of the penalty, timeframe for payment or payment method are not able to be varied by Devon County Council.

 

Parents should note that only one notice per parent per child will normally be issued with a two year period. Any second 'offence' within a two year period will be referred straight to court.

 

Absence due to Sickness:

 

All sickness should be reported to the School Office, NOT THE CLASS TEACHER OR VIA A SIBLING.  Unless you know the length of sickness (eg 48 hours after last bout of sickness) please contact the school either in person, via the app or by telephone on each day of sickness, if we do not receive a communication from you the School Office will contact you.

 

Please try and make medical appointments out of school hours, children having to leave class half way through a lesson not only disturbs their learning but also affects other children in the class. If you have to make a medical appointment during school hours please provide evidence to the School Office.

 

If your child exceeds:

 

12 sessions of sickness you will receive a letter titled Medical Letter 1.

20 sessions of sickness you will receive a letter titled Medical Letter 2.

 

After 20 sessions all sickness will be unauthorised if they are not evidenced.

 

Should your child reach 10 sessions of unauthorised absence we will arrange a meeting with yourselves and The Education Welfare Officer which may then proceed to a legal meeting.

 

 

NB: A day is 2 sessions (AM & PM)