Absences

It is important to encourage the habits of punctuality and good attendance. Please phone the school between 8:30 and 8:45am to report an absence, this should then be followed up with an email to admin@wheatcroft.herts.sch.uk to confirm the reason for your child’s absence. In cases of major illness or emergency, the school should be notified on the first day if the absence is likely to be prolonged.

Should you need to collect your child during the day for a hospital or dental appointment etc. an email in advance is required. All children arriving during the day must be taken to the school office and collected from there, not the classroom.

At the end of the year absences, lateness and holiday absences are recorded on your child’s written report.

Lateness

Obviously this is very undesirable but does sometimes happen. Always take your child to the school office where they can be signed in and marked in the register. If your child needs to go to the doctor or dentist during the day then again call at the office to collect your child. We hope you are normally able to take your child for appointments etc. after school or in the holidays.

Leave of Absence

Under current legislation imposed by the Department for Education, Head teachers are not permitted to grant leave of absence for any family holiday save in exceptional circumstances.  Any leave taken without approval will be marked as “unauthorised” on the child’s legal record of attendance.  If you need to take your child out of school for any reason there is a “Notification of Intended Absence from School” form available for your completion.  Unless the absence is of an urgent nature, this must be submitted at least 21 school days prior to the event for consideration.  Staff will not normally set work for this absence but will be happy to review a diary of the child’s holiday.

The Governing body have adopted the revised (2016) Hertfordshire guidance on attendance.  Pupils with more than 15 sessions of unauthorised absence may be liable for HCC to issue a penalty notice.  This can lead to a fine for each unauthorised session of absence for each parent or carer.

For information regarding Childhood Illnesses please follow the link on this webpage:

NHS – Is my child too ill for school?