Absence

When your child is absent from school please inform us by telephone, email, in person or by letter explaining the reasons for the absence.  All absences must be reported to the school office on the first day of absence.  You will receive a message from the office if we do not hear from you.

It is very important that all absences are explained.  All unexplained absences have to be recorded as unauthorised.

Lateness

Children should not be late for school except in emergencies and then we need to be informed of the reason.  Children arriving after 8.30am must report to the office.  Children arriving after this time will be marked 'late' in the register.  Any child arriving after the registers closed will be marked as absent.

Holidays in Term Time

As you may already be aware, government guidelines, which came into effect on 1st September 2013, prevent Head Teachers from granting any leave of absence during term time, unless there are exceptional circumstances. A family holiday during term-time does not fall under the category of ‘exceptional circumstances’ and so head Teachers are unable to authorise this.

With this in mind, the Directors of the Multi Academy Trust have taken the decision in line with Government policy to request that Leicestershire County Council, issue a penalty fine to parents who take their children out of school during term time, for a family holiday from the beginning of the Autumn term 2014.

We do not believe that fining parents is beneficial for anyone concerned, however this policy is now statutory and we have taken the decision to abide by this policy.

Schools within the Multi Academy Trust promote the view that regular attendance is important to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for all children. We believe the whole school community takes responsibility for attendance.

Our aims are:

 To raise the attendance of our pupils

 To improve punctuality

 To raise levels of achievement

 To maximise opportunities undertaken by children in school

Schools within the Multi Academy Trust support the view that every lesson counts and actively discourages parents from taking holidays in term time. However, there may be some circumstances when this is unavoidable. Any holiday that has not been authorised by the Head Teacher will be classed as an unauthorised absence.

The Multi Academy Trust would like to make it clear that all monies paid in penalty fines, goes to Leicestershire County Council and does not benefit either our school or the Multi Academy Trust.

Directors of the RISE Academies Trust