Attendance & Penalty Notices

Hampshire County Council Attendance Information

Is my Child too ill for school?

Chiltern Primary School - Lateness and Absence Procedures

1. The register is taken at 8.55am. Any child who arrives after 8.55am needs to go straight to the office to report their arrival so it can be marked as late. Any child arriving after 9.15am will have a ‘U’ recorded as unauthorised.

2. If a child is absent, and the school has not been informed of a reason for the absence before 9.30am, an automated message will be sent via Arbor, if no reason is given by 10am, a phone call home will be made.

3. There are two types of absence – authorised or unauthorised leave of absence.

Absence may only be authorised for:

Genuine illness
Emergency medical/dental appointments (routine appointments should be made outside of school hours)
A maximum of 3 days, in an academic year, for religious observance of the religious body to which the parent belongs.
Education off-site e.g. transfer days to Secondary Schools.
Approved Educational Activities – with supporting evidence, e.g. to attend a sports tournament, ballet exam.

All other forms of absence will NOT be authorised:

One-off short absence for family events or closure of a sibling’s school
Holidays, including days overlapping the beginning and or end of term, availability of cheap flights or previous inability to take a holiday.
Sickness absence will be recorded as unauthorised, if the school is not advised of the reason why the child is out of school.

Absence that falls into one of the other categories listed above will be unauthorised if it is taken without prior permission.

175 Non-School Days a Year 175 days to spend on family time, visits, holidays, shopping, household jobs and other appointments.
190 School Days in each year	6 days absence	10 days absence	15 days absence	19 days absence, almost 4 school weeks	36 days of absence
	184 days of education v 181 non-school days	180 days of education v 185 non-school days	175 days of education v 190 non-school days	171 days of education v 194 non-school days	152 days of education v 213 non-school days
100%	97%	95%	92%	<90%	80%
Excellent Best chance of success Gets your child off to a flying start		Ok Less chance of success	Worrying Makes it harder to makes progress	Children are categorised as 'persistent absentees' by the DfE when below 90%	Serious concern Not fair on your child May result in fines and court action