Attendance
Our aim is that every child maintains a good level of attendance as this is important in ensuring that children are able to maximise their opportunities and realise their true potential.
Obviously there are times when children are unwell or infectious and cannot come to school. Please keep the school informed; let us know as soon as possible by telephoning the school office.
We have a first day contact system which means that we will contact you if a child does not arrive at school and where no message has been received. Our first day contact coordinator (Mrs Ennion), monitors attendance and punctuality very closely.
If possible, try to arrange any dental and doctor’s appointments outside of school hours. If you do need to remove your child from class, please keep this to as short a period as possible and let us know beforehand.
The school strongly advises that parents make every attempt not to arrange holidays or to take occasional days leave during school time: amendments to school regulations make it clear that headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. If you do intend making a request for an exceptional leave of absence, you need to be aware that the DfE’s statutory guidance states that even where leave can be granted, the number of days a child can be away from school should be determined by the headteacher.
Stockton LA and Durham Lane Primary School have agreed a common practice in defining the criteria for determining exceptional leave; we have our own leave of absence form. This is obtainable from the office or below and it is important that you give as much information as possible to help us in our decision.
We are working under the Government’s new guidelines on attendance and lateness and, as always, we want to work with our families to ensure the best for our pupils. However, parents must be aware that unauthorised absences that are not deemed to be ‘exceptional circumstances’, may be liable to fixed penalty fines by the Local Authority.
