Attendance 

If children are to reach their potential they need to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Regular, uninterrupted school attendance is a key factor in helping children reach their potential. Every effort should always be made to avoid disruption to a child’s education.

Requests for Leave

Following amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 which came into effect 1st September 2013, Head Teachers are only allowed to grant leave of absence from school in exceptional circumstances. The decision as to whether any request is considered as ‘exceptional circumstances’ rests solely with the Head Teacher.

The fundamental principles for defining ‘exceptional’ are rare, significant, unavoidable and short; 'unavoidable' should be taken to mean an event that could not reasonably be scheduled at another time.

In considering whether or not to authorise a request for exceptional leave of absence in term time the Head Teacher will look at each individual case and only grant authorisation if the circumstances are truly exceptional. Additionally, any request should be made prior to the leave of absence and should be submitted to the school using the Request for Leave of Absence form. Parents/Carers may be asked to provide additional information/evidence or meet with the school to discuss the circumstances.

Parents/Carers will be notified of the Head Teacher’s decision at the earliest opportunity. If the circumstances are not considered to be exceptional then parents/carers will be informed of this and made aware that the Local Authority may be asked to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice.

Medical Appointments and Medical Evidence 

Where possible, please ensure medical appointments for your child are outside of school hours but if your child does need to go for an appointment, please provide the school with an appointment card or letter.

If you need to provide us with medical evidence for your child’s absence, please see the examples of the evidence we will accept.

Types of medical evidence accepted for absence from school:

• Doctor/Nurse appointment card
• Signed or stamped doctor compliment slip
• NHS or other medical professional appointment letter
• Named medication with date
• Named prescription with date

Emergency School Closures

During the day

In extreme circumstances (severe weather or failure of the heating system for example) it may be necessary to close the school early. If this should happen, we will contact parents initially by text via Group Call. We will follow this up with individual phone calls depending on the nature of the closure.  It is essential that we have contact details for all our families including friends/extended family should parents be unable to come into school. 

Before the School Day starts

In the event of severe weather meaning that the school cannot open in the morning, we will send parents a Groupcall text and post a message on our website.  We will also put out a message on local radio. If parents do not receive a message before 8am then the school is safe to open and children should come in. One of the considerations the school has when making a decision not to open is the safety of staff travelling in from outside the local area and the impact travel difficulties for them may have on the pupil to staff ratio. We will always do our best to ensure the school is open in the event of weather disruption.  

A day in the life of a Bethany child...