Attendance Policy

Leave of Absence Requests

Heamoor  Primary School seeks to ensure that all its pupils receive a full-time education which maximises opportunities for each pupil to realise his/her true potential.   We apply our School Attendance Policy consistently. 

Up until July 2013, the regulations (2006) allowed head teachers to grant leave of absence for the purposes of a family holiday during term time in “special circumstances” of up to ten school days leave per year.  Head teachers could also grant extended leave for more than ten school days in exceptional circumstances.

However, Amendments to the 2006 regulations, which came into effect in September 2013, removes references to family holiday and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days.  The amendments make it clear that head teachers may not grant child can be away from school - if exceptional leave is granted. It is recommended that a headteacher should not grant any request for pupil absence where a child’s attendance is below 94%.

 

Absence Monitoring
 

We monitor the children’s attendance using a RAG (red/amber/green) rated system to alert parents about their child’s attendance;

 

GREEN Band                                                  96% to 100%

AMBER Band                                                90% to 95.9%

RED Band (PERSISTENT ABSENTEE*)                      Below 90%

(*This is a government definition.)

 

If a child’s attendance drops below 96% then parents are sent an ‘amber’ letter and below 90% a ‘red’ letter. The letter received will explain the next steps but essentially it will be an offer of a conversation and support in the first instance as we would prefer to work with parents to resolve any problems they may be experiencing.