The Education Act states that parents have the primary responsibility for ensuring that children of compulsory school age receive a suitable education. We ask parents to support school in promoting good attendance by:
Ensuring that children attend school regularly and arrive on time.
All children should arrive at school at 8.55am ready for registration at 9.00am. Please ensure that your child arrives at school on time so that we can check registers and lunch numbers efficiently and so that s/he doesn't miss any of the first lesson. Children arriving after 9.00am will be marked 'late' in the register and after 9.30am this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. If your child is going to be unavoidably late we would appreciate a phone call to this effect.
If your child is ill please contact the school on the first morning of absence. If a call has not been received by 9.30am, the school office staff will call, for safety reasons, to find out the reason for your child not being in school.
When your child returns to school ensure that a note is provided confirming the reason for absence.
Parents are always advised to avoid taking holidays during term time. Before requesting a holiday, think about the lessons your child will miss, the difficulty they will have in catching up and the effect it will have on how well they do at school. Other occasions such as bereavements or unavoidable family visits may also mean that children have to miss school. These are considered as 'authorised absences'. For all foreseeable absences parents are asked to complete an absence request form available from the office. Holidays are rarely authorised in term time, unless exceptional circumstances apply.
Notes concerning dental, clinic, doctor or hospital appointments should be sent in the day before to inform the class teacher. Children will not be allowed to leave school unless collected by a designated adult, and the class teacher informed. Parents should sign their child in and out of school at the office if they have to be absent during the course of a day.
At Brookside we have a responsibility to work with the LA and the Education Welfare Service to ensure that children attend school. We are required to inform the LA if a pupil fails to attend or is late regularly and if no reason for absence is provided.