Attendance and Holidays

At Barnsole Primary School, we make no excuses for insisting that our children are in school everyday. This is every parents responsibility and indeed legal duty. 

Every minute counts!

We will work in partnership with pupils, parents, carers and the wider community to improve all aspects of attendance and punctuality.

As a school, we take a proactive approach through a range of positive initiatives to ensure our children attend school regularly and on time. These include:

• Offering attendance clinics to parents and carers who experience difficulties in getting their child(ren) to school regularly and on time; and
• Actively using ‘Pupil Voice’ to seek ideas and feedback from Barnsole's pupils on attendance and punctuality systems and rewards.

Reporting Absences

In the event that your child is unable to attend school, please email: absence@barnsole-maritime.org or telephone the school on 01634 333400 by 9:00am on each day of absence and include the following information:

• Name of pupil;
• Class; and
• Reason for absence.  Please be reminded that we need a specific reason for your child's absence for our registers.

Any absences that are not reported will be followed up initially with a telephone call and/or email. If we are unable to make contact, we may undertake a home visit as part of our statutory safeguarding procedures. Please see the Penalty Notice for Unauthorised Absences regarding procedures in conjunction with Medway Council AASSA.

We ask that, as far as possible, any health or dental appointments are made outside of school hours but recognise that this is not always possible. For any planned absence, for example a medical appointment such as the hospital, doctor or dentist, please complete an Absence Request Form and attach a copy of the appointment card or letter. Hard copies are available from the School Office. Please be aware that parents and carers may be asked to meet with the school’s Attendance Manager to discuss any requests in more detail.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding attendance, please request an appointment by contacting the office as follows:

• Telephone: 01634 333400
• Email: absence@barnsole-maritime.org

For further information, please see Attendance policy.

Thank you for ensuring that your child(ren) attend school regularly and on time.

The NHS website has a comprehensive page about common illnesses (see below.  This can be used as a reference to see if your child should come to school.

NHS Live Well - is-my-child-too-ill-for-school

Holidays

Holidays taken in school time are not authorised and could result in a fine. Families taking holidays in term time will be referred to the South Eastern Attendance Advisory Service who work closely with the school. The absence request form can be requested from the main office.

The law says that parents/carers do not have a legal right to take their child out of school for holidays in term time.

Penalty notices may be issued to the parent of pupils who have unauthorised absence from school.

With effect from August 2024, the national policy on unauthorised absence has changed and can be summarised as:

The amount for a penalty charge notice is £160 per adult with parental responsibility.

• If this is paid within 21 days the amount is reduced to £80.
• Penalties and prosecutions are in respect of each parent for each child.

5 days absence reduces the potential attendance from 100% to 97.4%

10 days absence reduces the potential annual attendance from 100% to 94.7% = Cause for Concern.

Maritime Trust Attendance Strategy

In additional to The Barnsole Attendance policy, the school works in partnership with the Maritime Trust to ensure that school attendance is prioritised. The Trust Attendance Strategy and Policy can be found here.