Attendance/Absence

We believe that good attendance is essential for your child’s education.  It is directly linked to raising attainment and helping children reach their full potential.  Please support the school by ensuring your child comes to school regularly, punctually and ready to learn. 

Illness

If your child is unable to come to school due to illness, please let the school office know before 9am via email at admin@praewood.herts.sch.uk or by leaving a message on our absence line on 01727 751930, option 1.  Please advise of your child’s name, class and reason for absence.  If your child is absent for more than one day, please continue to update the school daily. 

If you are unsure whether your child should attend school click on this useful link to help you make your decision. www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Please also refer to our medical guidance document.  

A reminder that children with stomach/sickness bugs must remain off school for 48 hours following their last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.

Punctuality

It is extremely important that your children arrive on time every day. Being late can be unsettling to the child and disruptive to the class. Persistently late children can miss vital education.

The school day begins promptly with registration at 8.50am.  Children arriving after 9.00am are required to come into school via the school office where they will be entered into the late arrivals book and their attendance will be recorded as ‘L’ in the register. At 9.20am the registers will be closed. In accordance with the Regulations, if your child arrives after that time, and we have not heard from you, they will receive a mark in the register that shows them to be on site – ‘U’, but this will not count as a present mark and it will mean that they have an unauthorised absence. 

We have a safeguarding duty to your child and a responsibility to correctly record their attendance.  If your child is missing from the register and we have not heard from you, we will contact you via email and text for a reason for absence. 

Appointments

Please make routine dental and doctor’s appointments after school or in the school holidays where possible.  If your child has an unavoidable appointment and will be late for school or picked up early, please email the school office. 

Holidays/Other absences

Following National Guidelines, you are reminded that we strongly discourage families from withdrawing children from school or taking holidays during term time as it is disruptive to the children’s education. 

If there are exceptional circumstances that require you to apply for an authorised absence from school, please complete the online form Authorised Absence Request Form

Mrs Sheppard will look at each application individually, considering the specific facts and background context.  Holidays are very rarely an acceptable reason for a school absence and are unlikely to be treated as an exceptional circumstance.  

These request forms for authorised absence will be reviewed weekly and Mrs Sheppard's decision will be communicated with you via email.  The absence period will then be recorded in the school register as either 'C' for authorised leave, 'R' for religious observance, 'O' for unauthorised absence or 'G' for unauthorised family holiday. 

Attendance Policy

You can review our Attendance Policy via our Policies Page