Good attendance at school is vital to children's educational achievement and wellbeing. Good attendance is defined as attendance at school for at least 96% and above of the academic year for ALL children enrolled at the school, regardless of whether or not they are of legal school age.

It is also defined as:

  • Children being in school every day that the school is open
  • Children arriving on time
  • Children being collected on time
  • All leave, unless in exceptional circumstances, to be taken in the school holidays

It is each parent/carer’s responsibility to ensure that children arrive at school on time and attend school every day.

Your child's attendance percentage is made up of presents, lates, authorised absences and unauthorised absences. Whilst we understand that there may be occasions when being late to school is unavoidable, good punctuality at school is essential for children to achieve their full educational potential.  It is also vital for children to form good habits for later life. Therefore it is really important that your child arrives a school and on time.

Lateness

According to DfE guidelines, registers must be closed after a certain time in the morning.

At Kents Hill School, doors open at 8.30am for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and at 8.50am for children in Nursery.

They remain open until 8.40am for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and until 8.55am for children in Nursery.

After doors close, registers are taken. Any child in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 arriving between 8.40am and 9am will receive an L code as late.

Any child arriving after 9am will receive a U code for unauthorised absence. This is because any child arriving after the registers close cannot receive a late mark but have to be marked as absent for the whole morning session.

If the lateness is due to a legitimate reason e.g. a medical appointment that we have been told of in advance, the absence can be authorised.  Otherwise, the session is marked as an unauthorised absence.  This picture shows that every minute at school counts and we don’t want any child to miss out.

Illness Absence from School

We fully understand and appreciate that young children can often become very ill at peak illness times of the year and absence from school is unavoidable. We also want to be able to offer help and support to any child who has frequent absences from school for illness, such as referral to school nursing.

Please continue to call in by 9am each morning that your child is absent. You can choose Option 1 to leave a message when calling in to school - 01908 240038. You can also email - office@kentshillsch.co.uk and let us know.

If we have not heard from you by 9.15am, we will call you and work our way through all contacts on your child's approved list until we manage to speak to someone to get in contact with you.

If we are still unable to speak to anyone, we will carry out a home welfare visit. This is an important part of our safeguarding responsibilities to ensure that all children are accounted for. At these visits, we can offer any help or support that you may need whilst caring for a sick child.

We will also carry out a home welfare visit on day 3 and day 5 of any absence, regardless of whether or not we have heard from you. Again, we can offer any help or support that you may need.

For illness absence over 3 days, we will also ask for proof of illness, such as a screenshot of a doctor's appointment text or your child's prescribed medication.

Any child who has a high temperature and/or is vomiting or has diarrhoea must remain away from school until 48 hours have passed after the last episode.

If you are unsure as to whether your child can come to school, the NHS have a handy guide - NHS Guide - Can My Child Attend School?

Attendance Letters and Meetings

Our attendance policy - Attendance Policy 2024-25  - has our attendance procedures and monitoring clearly explained as to steps the local authority mandates that we must take should your child's attendance fall below 96%. This also includes children in our Nursery.

Attendance falling below 63% in Nursery triggers a meeting with parents as this level of attendance may make them liable for that block of funding. In the rare event that any child's attendance in Nursery drops below 63% and doesn't improve following a meeting, we have an obligation to notify the local authority and they make the decision on whether or not to stop funding a Nursery place.

Attendance below 90% is considered 'persistent absence'. If your child's attendance falls below 90%, you will be invited to a Connections Meeting at the school to discuss ways in which we can work together to improve your child's attendance.

Attendance below 88% will trigger a tiered approach to support, along with a formal action plan and offer of an Early Help Assessment. Further information can be found in the attached policy.

Absence Requests:

We cannot authorise any leave during school term time, except in exceptional circumstances.

No leave of absence request forms will be given out until a Connections meeting has taken place beforehand with Juliet Griffin, our Pastoral Lead, to discuss the request. Please call at the school office or email jgriffin@kentshillsch.co.uk if you need to arrange a meeting.