If a child is unable to attend school for any reason, such as illness or a doctor’s appointment, it is vital that you ring into school before 9.00 am, giving the reason and when you expect the child to return to school. This is an important child protection issue as the school is not to know whether they have been sent to school or not. Without that phone call the child would still be expected at school. Absences without a strong enough reason will be recorded as Unauthorised Absence- in effect, truancy.
We monitor our registers for children whose attendance drops below 94% and we will inform you if, through repeated absence, your child’s attendance is suffering. The school will do all that it can to help parents fulfil their legal obligations to ensure good attendance, including engaging the Family Service, but may issue Penalty Notices if parents do not comply.
It is not acceptable to take children away from their schooling. A lot of time, energy, effort and public resource goes into providing children’s education and this should be valued. There is a danger of taking education for granted and every day at Sir Edmund Hillary is an important day. Parents do not have the right to take their child out of school for such a holiday, but the school, in exceptional circumstances may choose to grant a leave of absence of up to 5 days in any school year. In the event that makes it necessary for longer planned absence, cases should be discussed with the Head Teacher, as a child who is absent longer then 5 days after an agreed return date, can legally be removed from the school roll.
If the holiday taken is within the first three weeks of the academic year or during the Assessment weeks in May and June, they will be automatically recorded as Unauthorised Absence (in essence, truancy). Other factors that are taken into consideration when authorising holiday is a child’s attendance, the income of the family, religious festivals and the nature of the holiday but an exceptionality must be evident. Applications must be made in writing using the form available from the school office or below.
| Name | Download Link |
| PupilLeaveOfAbsAppForm2023.pdf | Download |
