Lateness

To help your child arrive at school on time, we open the gates at 8.45am. This allows them to settle in to class and complete the morning activities before the school day starts. All children must arrive at school by the time the bell goes at 8:55am and, if going home for lunch, should return by 1:30pm. Lateness after the gates close at 8:55am will incur a ‘Late Mark’ in the attendance register, which will then be recorded on your child’s attendance record. We ask for your co-operation in ensuring that your child arrives at school on time, as valuable curriculum opportunities are lost through continued late arrivals! If any child is to arrive late, then an adult must accompany them into the school building as the child needs to be signed in.

Persistent lateness, or absence, may result in a visit by the school’s Education Welfare Officer.

Your child also needs to be collected on time at the end of the day (3.30pm). Children can become very upset if the person collecting them is late.

Absence

For children to make the most possible progress in their learning, they need to be in school every day. Missed days mean missed learning, which, as a result, can cause for your child to be behind their peers. Children need to aim for 97% attendance. If a child has attendance below 90%, you are at risk of receiving a visit from the Education Welfare Officer.

 

Illness

Below are the recommendations from the Public Health Agency for common illness’ that children often take time off school for.

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Symptom	Recommended period to be kept away from nursery/ school
Diarrhoea and/ or vomiting	48 hours from last episode of diarrhoea or vomiting
Conjunctivitis	None
Head lice	None
Tonsillitis	None
Glandular fever	None
Warts and Verrucae	None
Chickenpox	Five days from the onset of rash
Hand, Foot and Mouth	None
Impetigo	Until lesions are crusted and healed or 48 hours after commencing antibiotic treatment
General cough and/ or cold	None
Minor Headache	None
Sore throat	None

If your child is absent from school, please phone the school office 01332 346230 and leave a message stating:

Child’s Name
Year Group
Reason for Absence

If you do not report your child’s absence, we will phone you to ask where your child is. If we cannot contact you, we will attempt to undertake a home visit.

As part of our Safeguarding policy, we have to ensure all children who are not in school are safe, please help us to do this!

Illness During School Hours

In cases where a child becomes ill or is injured at school, parents will be contacted. A member of staff cares for sick pupils until a parent arrives.

Emergency telephone numbers are required for every child to enable us to get in touch with you when necessary. It is essential that you inform us of any change in your home, work or mobile telephone numbers, so that we can contact you without delay if your child is ill or has an accident.

It is equally important that you inform school of the name of anyone who should not have access to your child.

Medication In School

Following a period of illness, children may be well enough to come to school but still require medication. Where appropriate, the school office staff are able to administer medicines. A ‘Medicine Consent’ form must always be completed if you wish us to administer medication. These are available from the school office.

We are informed by the Local Authority that doctors have been asked to try to time dosages of prescribed medicines to times outside normal school hours, so please ask your GP about this where necessary.

Please inform us if:

• Your child has any health problems or allergies
• Your child is receiving any treatment that may affect activities in school
• Your child has any food allergies

Appointments

Please try to make any doctor, hospital or dentist appointments out of school time. However, we know sometimes that this is not possible. If your child does have an appointment during school time and needs to be collected, you must bring the letter/appointment card into school for us to authorise the absence and allow you to take your child out of school.