Attendance and Absence

Park Academy actively promotes and rewards good attendance. Coming to school regularly is a powerful way to ensure your child learns effectively and is well-prepared for their future.

Please make sure your child attends regularly and on time.

The school is open from 8.40am each morning so that children can enter before the school day begins at 8.50am.

At the end of the day, the school day ends at 3.20pm. The gates will open just before 3.20pm ready for you to collect your children. Our school is open to children for a minimum of 32.5 hours each week.

Being in school every day is so important. Encouraging good attendance at school is a big part of our culture at Park Academy.

Why is coming to school so important?

All parents want the best for their children and for them to get on well in life. Having a good education is an important way to ensure that they have the best opportunities in their adult lives. They only get one chance at school, and your child’s future as an adult may be affected by not attending school regularly.

When children do not attend school regularly, they may:

Struggle to keep up with their learning. In a busy school week, it is difficult for schools to find the extra time to help a child catch up. If children build up gaps in their learning each term, or even every school year, they may never have the chance to catchup.
Miss out on the social side of school life. Poor attendance can affect children’s abilities to make and keep friendships; a vital part of growing up. It also affects their chances of securing a job when they are adults if they don’t develop those vital social skills.

If you or your child are experiencing any issues which may prevent them from having good attendance, please come and speak to us as soon as you can.

Contacting the school if your child is absent

Call the school office on 01205 368805. You may also notify us of any absence on the WEDUC, where you can complete an absence form. You must contact the school on every day of absence.
If school is not notified of an absence, a member of staff from school will phone to find out why your child is absent.
If no contact is made with the school, or absence extends over 3 days, please be aware that a home visit may be made by our Attendance and Welfare Team, or the Trust’s Attendance Team.

When might my child need to stay at home?

Sometimes children really are too poorly for school.

Most of the time however – unless your child has a fever and or a temperature, sickness or diarrhoea, they are able to attend school. Please be assured that if you child comes to school and then we can see that they become too unwell to manage during the school day, we will contact you.

The NHS has a helpful guide for parents which covers most childhood ailments and whether a child needs to stay at home if they catch them. This guidance also explains for how long.

Please find the link below:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Medicines

If your child is prescribed medicine by the doctor then the following rules apply:

Medicine prescribed 3 times per day WILL NOT be given by staff. Parents can give the prescribed dosage morning, after school and bed time.

Medicine prescribed 4 times per day WILL be given by a member of the staff but parents will need to complete and sign a form giving permission for this to happen. Please ask at the school office.

For safety reasons, children MUST NOT bring medicines or tablets to school in their bags, lunchboxes or pockets.

Usually, we would expect a child to have no more than 48 hours off school if they are given medication from the doctor unless absolutely necessary.

Any child suffering from diarrhoea or vomiting should also be kept off school for 48 hours.

Holidays

From 1st September 2013 the Education Regulations 2006 were amended. As a result of these amendments, schools are no longer able to grant up to 10 school days of annual leave and holidays will no longer be authorised unless the reason is deemed to be an exceptional circumstance.

If you wish to seek approval for any request of absence for your child from the Academy, which you consider exceptional, you must apply in writing to the Head Teacher, ideally at least four weeks prior to the leave of absence. A decision will then be made about whether the absence is deemed as exceptional circumstances and evidence may be requested to support your application. You should only remove your child if the absence has been authorised by the Academy.

Should you fail to notify the Academy of an absence, or you choose to take your child out of Academy during term time when the absence has not been approved, or when a decision was still pending, the matter may well be referred to Lincolnshire County Council and a Fixed Penalty Notice (a fine is per parent /per child) could be issued for the period of absence. Failure to pay the Fixed Penalty Notice may result in further legal action being taken against you.

Further Information

Further information about Attendance can be found in our Attendance Policy and our academy’s Attendance Procedures documents – click to here to follow the link to those documents.