This page will tell you how to communicate with school if your child is ill or absent for any other reason. Also it lets you know how we manage staff absence. At the foot of the page you can download the Application for Leave of Asbence form, or you can call in to school and the office will be happy to provide a form.

Child's Absence

The law requires that your child attends school every day. Every school day counts and we encourage all families to do their best to keep attendance as high as possible. If your child is ill please inform us by telephone or email before the start of the day of the absence. For safeguarding reasons, we are required to contact parents once registers are closed if we have not heard from you. It is essential that the school office holds up to date contact details. Please keep us informed if any contact details change.

If your child is ill with vomiting or diarrhoea they should not return to school until 48 hours after the last bout.

Children with rashes should be considered infectious and assessed by their doctor.

It would also be beneficial for us to know in advance if your child is to be withdrawn for a dental or hospital appointment, so that we can mark the register appropriately. We ask that you endeavour to make appointments outside school hours, but appreciate that this isn't always possible.

If your child has a health problem that may affect his/her school life, please let us know, this will help us to respond appropriately to their needs.

Staff Absence

Staff can be absent from class for a variety of reasons: training, illness, family related issues for example. Where possible we can plan ahead and secure supply teachers well in advance. Some supply teachers work only for us and are very well known in school.

We also use a number of supply agencies, with whom we work very closely which ensures we get to know their teachers and can develop relationships with excellent professionals who often choose to come to us.

Where a member of staff needs an extended period of leave these agencies help us to ensure we can continue to provide consistent high quality teaching and learning experiences for our children, often rearranging commitments where possible to keep a teacher available to us.

Obviously, on occasion we need supply teachers at short notice and our starting point is always those staff we know, but every teacher who comes to us from agencies meets the normal rigorous standard for qualification and safeguarding clearance.

We will do our best to ensure you are informed in a timely way, but for reasons of both of confidentiality, and because we may not know more than day to day, it isn’t always possible to give more than simple information to class. Often we communicate to parents via the class when a teacher will be absent so that the children are prepared in advance.