admin.eas@ebor.academy | 01964 650214
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Sickness Absence

You must notify the school office of your child’s absence no later than 9.00am on the first day of absence.  Please telephone the school office on 01964 650214 as soon as possible.  Our answer machine is on 24 hours a day, so please leave a message if you ring school and there is no one available to answer your call. Alternatively you can email us at admin.eas@ebor.academy.

If your child is absent and we do not hear from you, we have a duty of care to call each of your emergency contacts until we are able to establish that your child is safe. In the event that we are unable to do this we will then send a Parenthub or Classdojo message to the primary contact for your child.

If by 10am we still haven’t been able to speak to a parent/carer, we will then be left with no option but to carry out a home visit (if staffing levels permit). This is obviously an added pressure on parents/carers and places a strain on staffing within the school, all of which could be easily avoided by simply notifying us by one of the methods above that your child will be absent that day.

If we are unable to establish the whereabouts of a child following a home visit we reserve the right to contact the police to request a welfare check.

If your child is off for more than one day, we would appreciate an update via telephone if possible.

Thank you for your support and cooperation in keeping our pupils safe.

Educational Welfare Officer

As part of our absence management processes, we have employed the services of an Educational Welfare Officer ( EWO) called Charlene Wright. Ms Wright works closely with the school to advise on attendance matters, monitor persistent absences cases and offer support to families who may be having difficulties with their child’s attendance.

Please do not be offended if you are contacted by the EWO regarding your child’s attendance – they are there to offer support and guidance.

If you would like to speak with Ms Wright please contact the school directly and we can arrange for her to get in touch.

Persistent Absence

Missing school for any reason results in your child falling behind in lessons and can impact on their academic progress and achievement. If your child takes too much time off school they will become categorised as PA or ‘Persistently Absent’. Persistent absence is classed as attendance below 90%.

Just 7 days of absence during the first term of school (between September and December) will make your child a PA child.

The school will regularly update parents/ carers regarding their child’s attendance. If a child’s attendance falls below 90% the school will arrange a meeting between the parents/ carers and the Headteacher to discuss any issues and propose solutions.

Medical/ Dental Appointments

We encourage all parents/ carers to arrange routine medical or dental appointments outside of school hours, where possible.

If you must take your child out of school for a medical or dental appointment, please advise their class teacher or the school office as soon as possible before the date of the appointment. Please be advised that you may be asked to show your appointment confirmation letter to the school.

Depending on the time of the appointment, your child should remain in school until you need to collect them, and return to school after the appointment (where practicable). For example, if your child has a routine dental check-up at 10am, we would expect them to return to school straight after the appointment has finished. Failure to return to school without good reason will result in your child being marked as having an ‘unauthorised absence’ in the afternoon.

Absence from School for Exceptional Circumstances

You are required under the Education Act (1996) to ensure your child attends school regularly. There is, however, a discretionary power held by Headteachers to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances. Please note this is not an entitlement. The Headteacher will only authorise absence in line with the East Riding Behaviour & Attendance Partnership ‘Absence from School for Exceptional Circumstances’ Policy.

You can download and print a copy of the Absence Request Form or collect one from the school office. Requests should be submitted directly to the school, allowing sufficient time for the Head to consider requests and inform parents of the decision.

Headteachers will not authorise absences if they believe it is to the detriment of a child’s education. Please note that supporting documents to aid decision making must be submitted at the time of your request for absence. There is no longer a provision in law for Headteachers to authorise an absence for the purpose of a term time holiday.

If your request is authorised, you are required to ensure your child catches up on any missed school work. This is your responsibility and school are not obliged to provide work for your child to complete. Any unauthorised absence will be recorded on your child’s attendance records. This may result in legal proceedings against you, either through a Penalty Notice or the Magistrates’ Court.

Penalty Notices

Under the Anti Social Behaviour Act (2003) the local authority and schools have statutory powers to tackle poor school attendance and/or unauthorised absences. An unauthorised absence is any absence that the Headteacher has not given permission for or where an explanation has not been provided by the parent. If your child accrues 10 sessions of unauthorised absence you may be liable for a penalty notice (one days absence equals two sessions and a five day absence is equal to 10 sessions etc.).

Penalty Notices will be used as a deterrent to prevent a pattern of unauthorised absences developing. They will be issued by post direct to the home of a parent after possibly just one warning, or in the case of absences without acceptable cause, warnings may not be given. This includes pupils caught on truancy sweeps, persistent late arrival after the close of registration or unauthorised absence that has not been authorised as an absence from school for exceptional circumstances. In these cases the warning is given on the absence request form and detailed within this information leaflet and no written warning will be given.

Where parents do not follow school procedures of submitting a request and simply remove their child without seeking prior approval, a warning may not be given. Parents must complete a request for exceptional leave form and submit this to the school, allowing for sufficient time to enable the school to consider the request and inform the parent of the decision.
Fines are issued for unauthorised absence of 5 or more days and each school day is divided into 2 registration periods. For example if your child is absent for one day this equals 2 sessions and a five day absence is equal to 10 sessions.
If your request is declined and you still take your child out of school each parent within your household may be issued with a £60 penalty notice for each child you have taken out of school. If a penalty notice remains unpaid after 21 days it will increase to £120. If after 28 days it remains unpaid you may be summonsed to appear before Magistrates to explain why your child has unauthorised school absences and you may be liable for a fine of up to £1000.

Support and guidance on attendance is always available and if you have any questions about this, or if you need help to achieve an improvement, please contact your child’s school to discuss this.

We advise that you do not plan for your child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement from their school first. Headteachers cannot retrospectively authorise absence from school under any circumstance.