Principles
We want your child to achieve to the best of their ability and to enjoy their time at CHB. Regular and punctual school attendance is of paramount importance in ensuring that all learners have full access to the curriculum. Valuable learning time is lost when learners are absent or late. Evidence links good attendance with good achievement. The school supports the use of fixed penalty notices for holidays taken during school time.
Students should be at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Permitting absence from school without a good reason is an offence by the parent.
Please ensure you phone the school as early as possible to let us know if your child is going to be absent, giving us the reason why.
Please do let us know if we can help you in any way to establish good patterns of attendance – we recognise it is not always easy being a parent/carer and getting your child to school.
If a child is reluctant to attend, it is never better to cover up their absence or to give in to pressure to excuse them from attending. This gives the impression that attendance does not matter and may make things worse. Every half-day absence has to be classified by the school, NOT THE PARENTS, as either AUTHORISED or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information about the cause of each absence is always required, preferably in writing.
Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a reason such as genuine illness of the learner or unavoidable cause.
Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which we have no ‘leave’ has been given. This includes:
• Parents keeping learners off school unnecessarily
• Truancy before or during the school day
• Absences which have never been properly explained.
• Children who arrive at school too late to get a present mark.
Parents are expected to contact the school at an early stage and to work with the staff in resolving any problems together. If difficulties cannot be sorted out in this way, the school may invite the parents to an Attendance Support Meeting in order to try and resolve the situation by agreement but, if other ways of improving the child’s attendance have failed, the school may then refer the case to the Local Authority and Access to Education Officers can use court proceedings to prosecute parents or to seek an Education Supervision Order on the child. The maximum penalty on conviction is a fine of £2,500 and/or three months’ imprisonment.
If you have any queries or problems with attendance, please contact your child’s key worker, head of school or home to school liaison officer.
You can find a copy of our Attendance Policy here: https://chb.org.uk/central-policies/
If you need help with home to school transport, you can apply here