Attendance
Reporting an Absence due to illness
If your child is in years 7 to 11, please call the student absence line on 01702 476026 option 2 and if your child is in the Sixth Form, please email sixthformabsence@whsg.info Notifications of absences should be made before 8.30am on the first day of absence, and any subsequent days of absence as we have a Duty of Care to know where all our students are during school hours in term time. Please give your child’s name, form and the specific reason for absence. We may require a medical certificate to justify frequent or extensive absences. The NHS guidance is helpful in ascertaining whether your child is well enough to come to school.
If we are not informed of your child's absence, we will contact you in order to ensure their safety and confirm the reason for their absence. If we do not receive an explanation your child's absence, or if the explanation is unsatisfactory, we may not authorise the absence. This is to ensure that sickness absence is not misused, and to promote attendance levels for all students.
Medical, optician and dental appointments
If possible, medical, dental and optician appointments should be made out of school hours or during the school holidays. Where this cannot be arranged, we ask that the student is out of school for the minimum amount of time possible. Students who need to leave school during normal school hours for an appointment must sign out at Reception. Students should also sign in again on return.
When notifying us of any advance appointments, please use the dedicated email address: attendance@whsg.info All medical appointments, however brief, should be backed up with medical evidence. This can be either a copy of the appointment letter/card or a screen shot of a text reminder from the dentist, optician or hospital.
Requests for Leave of Absence not related to ill health or for a medical appointment
The Department of Education ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ statutory guidance, that has applied since 19th August 2024, states that schools are able to grant a leave of absence at their discretion if there are exceptional circumstances. Schools must judge each application individually considering the specific facts and circumstances and relevant background context behind each request. Where a leave of absence is granted, the school will determine the number of days a student can be absent from school. Generally, a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation would not constitute an exceptional circumstance. Should the request for leave be agreed by the school, it will be classified for statistical purposes as an authorised absence.
Any requests for a Leave of Absence should be made on the Leave of Absence form – see link below. If permission is refused and the absence is taken, this will be recorded as unauthorised. Southend on Sea City Council may issue a Penalty Notice depending on the length of the unauthorised absence of £80 per parent if paid within 21 days but rising to £160 if paid after 21 days but within 28 days. In cases where the Penalty Notice has not been paid within 28 days of issue, the case may be escalated to prosecution in the Magistrates Court for non-school attendance. If a second unauthorised leave is taken within a three-year period, there will be no option of the lower amount, and the Penalty Notice will incur a fine of £160. A national limit of two Penalty Notices can be issued for the same child within a rolling 3-year period. If a third offence is committed, then parents could be prosecuted for their child’s absence with no option of paying a fine.
Expectations
You have a legal responsibility to ensure your child is in regular school attendance and we expect parents to support the school in all attendance issues, including punctuality. By law only the school can approve absences, not parents. It is for the school to judge whether the explanation given is a satisfactory justification for the absence.
WHSG recognises that good attendance is essential in order to raise standards of student attainment and to give every child and young person the best educational experience possible. Research shows there is a strong correlation between high levels of attendance and academic achievement. Every lesson in school matters and absence can limit a pupil’s progress, and therefore their life chances. If students are not in school, they cannot be educated.
Further Information
FFT National School Attendance Award 2024/25 Spring Term
https://www.southend.gov.uk/school-attendance
