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                       Attendance Policy

1. Introduction and rationale
Regular attendance at school is fundamental to a child’s
successful education. The purpose of this policy is to outline
procedures relating to attendance at Albourne School and to
provide guidelines and a structured framework to inform teachers,
staff, governors, parents and other interested parties.

2. Statutory requirements
Parents are legally required to ensure that children of compulsory
school age attend school regularly.

The school is legally required to
      ensure attendance registers are kept at the beginning of
        the morning and afternoon sessions;
      monitor attendance and identify authorised and
        unauthorised absences
      seek to maximise and support attendance.

Registers are monitored by the Education Welfare Officer.
Prolonged periods of absence, poor punctuality, unauthorised
absence or frequently occurring absence will be investigated

3. Registers and attendance marks
Registers are marked at the beginning of each school session ie at
9am and at the beginning of the afternoon session. Attendance
marks are given in accordance with guidance in the registers.
Registers close at 9.30 am
If a child arrives after the register has been taken, but before the
registers have been closed, a late mark (L) will be recorded by the
class teacher.
If a child arrives after the registers have been closed, a late mark
will be recorded (U) and the absence is unauthorised.

4. Authorised absence
Unavoidable absence will be authorised by the Headteacher.
Reasons for authorised absences are as follows:
       illness
      days of religious observance by a religious group to which
       the child belongs
      failure of school transport arrangements, for pupils who do
       not live within walking distance of the school.

The Headteacher has the authority to authorise other unavoidable
causes, such as family bereavement or emergency medical or
dental appointments.

Parents are asked to contact the school office on the first morning
of absence. The school will undertake to contact the parents
whenever possible when there is an unexplained absence. An
absence will be recorded as unauthorised if no explanation is
The school is legally responsible for reporting all unauthorised
absences to the Department for Education and Employment each

5. Holidays in term time
without prior permission from the Headteacher, and are strongly
discouraged from taking their annual holiday during term time. In
exceptional circumstances, when this is the only time that the
family can spend time together, authorisation may be granted by
the Headteacher. Authorisation of longer than ten days may not be
granted unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Requests for an individual day’s absence should be discussed with
the Headteacher.
Requests for holidays during school time must be made in writing,
using a Holiday Request form.
Holidays will not be authorised
    During the first 10 school days of the Autumn term, or the
      first 5 school days of the Spring or Summer terms, as this is
      when important introductions to the learning for the term take
    During SATs week in May, when the children take part in
      national tests.
    When the child has already had authorised or unauthorised
      absence from school for holiday reasons.
    Where there are concerns over a child’s rate of attendance
      at school.

September 2010