Attendance
At Dundale, we believe that regular school attendance is vital for your child's academic and personal growth. Every day at school is an opportunity for learning, connecting with peers, and building important social skills. We understand that sometimes absences are unavoidable, but we encourage you to prioritise school attendance wherever possible. If you have any concerns about your child's attendance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to support you and your child in every way we can.
Illness
We are aware that sometimes our pupils cannot come to school because they are really unwell, and that’s the right thing to do for them and other pupils. Medical advice is clear for children with a mild illness, they will often be well enough to attend – for example if they have a cough, or cold, without a temperature. The NHS guidance: Is my child too ill for school? (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/) is designed to support parents in their decision making about mild illness.
Leave of absence requests / holidays
Due to the number of families that take their children away on holiday during term time, the local authority has changed their fines procedure. We, as a school now have a legal obligation to inform the local authority if your child hits the unauthorised absence threshold. There will be a new threshold of any 10 unauthorised sessions (equivalent to 5 school days) within a 10-week school period where a penalty notice will be considered. The new rules mean you will no longer be able to take your child out of school for a week without a penalty issue being noticed. We have had instances where we have been told a child is ill and subsequently received other information that they were actually on holiday. In these instances the child will be marked as unauthorised holiday and the days will count towards a potential fine.
Leave of Absence form (Word document - editable)
Herts County Council Parent Guidance - Fixed Penalty Notice Fines
Monitoring attendance
We regularly monitor attendance and at the end of each term send out and update to all families. Please see below for information regarding our Traffic Light System
Dundale Attendance Monitoring - Traffic Light System
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An Overview for parents / carers
What YOU must do:
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Telephone , message via school comms or email to school before 9am each day of your child’s absence.
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Tell the school in advance of any medical appointments : Proof of these appointments may be needed in order to use the medical attendance code (authorised)
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If you are not sure whether your child is well enough to attend school, send them in anyway as they often perk up on arrival. We would telephone you if your child was too unwell to be in school. However, if your child has vomited or had diarrhoea, they will not be allowed to attend school for 48 hours from the last episode.
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Do not book holidays or events during term time.
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Communicating as early as possible circumstances which may affect absence or require support. If you and your child are experiencing difficulties with school attendance then talk to us as a first step so we can help!
What WE will do:
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Check your child’s attendance every day.
- Help support you and your child if they are finding it difficult to come into school
- Keep in contact if there is a concern over attendance
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Send home attendance information termly. If attendance is a concern and likely to fall below 90% a meeting may be required.
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Invite you into school for attendance meetings if we are concerned.
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If we cannot establish a reason for absence, or there has been no communication, then we may make a welfare home visit.
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Work with you to ensure children who are persistently or severely absent improve their attendance
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