Attendance
Attendance Recording Flowchart
The School Day
Our school day starts at 9.00am, in order for children to have a relaxed start to the day they are welcomed into school from 8.50am (registration is at 8.50am). The school day ends at 3.20pm. Lunch is from 12.00pm until 1.00pm.
Gomer Infant School is open to children for 32.5 hours per week.
Children enter the school through their own year group entrance for security and safety purposes.
To ensure safety and encourage good habits of punctuality any Parent / Carer arriving at 9.00am or after are asked to come in through the main entrance and sign in. Children arriving at 9.00am or after will be marked as late and after 9.30am will be recorded as absent.
Absences from school
Parents or carers of a child have a legal responsibility to ensure their child receives a suitable education. This is usually achieved through regular attendance at school.
Illness
If your child is too unwell to attend school, please call the school office (02392 580 808) before 9.00am and leave an absence message including your child’s name, their class and the reason they are absent.
Please use this handy guide to check if your child should be in school when unwell.
NHS – Is my child too ill for school?
Preventing and controlling infections
Other Absences
The Government have made amendments to the 2006 regulations relating to leave of absence of pupils during term time.
The changes include references relating to family holiday and extended leave as well as the threshold of ten school days has been removed. The amendments now make it clear that the Headteacher may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Therefore family holidays paid for by other family members or lower cost will not be allowed to be authorised, and doctor or dentist appointments can only be made in school time if an emergency. Emergency medical appointments within school hours must have proof of the appointment by way of an appointment card, letter, email or text from the surgery or hospital. If this cannot be provided the register will be recorded as ‘unauthorised’.
The aim is to have children in school with high levels of attendance to ensure they do learn to the highest possible standard. Please be aware that any exceptional reason for leave of absence must be given in writing using the leave of absence form, which is available from the school office or you can print one off.
As set down by the Department for Education, penalty notices can be issued for late or unauthorised absence. In Hampshire, Penalty Notices are issued when a pupil has had 10 or more half day sessions (equivalent to five school days) of unauthorised absence, in any 10 week school period; or one or more unauthorised absences during a public exam, assessment or test (where the dates have been published).
Schools are required by law to code the school attendance registers correctly. School registers are legal documents and must be completely accurate. It is a parents legal responsibility to ensure that their child is in school.
For further guidance on attendance, please see The Education Hub