Late/Absence Procedures

Absence Procedures

The name and contact details of the school staff member pupils and parents should contact about attendance on a day-to-day basis is:

Mrs Kate Carter

absence@newport.essex.sch.uk

We monitor all absence, and the reasons that are given, thoroughly.

If a child is absent from school the parent must follow these procedures:

• Contact the school on the first day of absence before 9.20 am. The school has an answer phone available to leave a message if nobody is available to take your call, or you may call into school personally and speak to the office staff
• Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9.20 am
• Ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible and you provide any medical evidence, if requested, to support the absence

If your child is absent, we will:

• Telephone or email you on the first, and every subsequent day of absence, if we have not heard from you however it is your responsibility to contact us
• If we are unable to contact parents by telephone, we will telephone emergency contact numbers, send letters home and a home visit may be made in the interests of safeguarding
• A referral will be made to Local Authority if no contact has been made with parents by the 10^th day of absence (or sooner if deemed appropriate), at which point your child will be “missing from education.”

If absence continues, we will:

• Write to you if your child’s attendance is below 95%, or where punctuality is a concern
• Invite you into school to discuss the situation with the headteacher.
•  Create a personalised action/support plan to address any barriers to attendance
• Offer signposting support to other agencies or services if appropriate
• Refer the matter to the Local Authority for relevant sanctions if attendance deteriorates following the above actions