Class teachers are responsible for recording attendance for both morning and afternoon sessions on a daily basis, using the correct codes and submitting this information to the school office. The timings for this process are outlined below.

Beginning of the day

• 8.35 am the school gates open allowing children to start entering school in a calm, safe and orderly manner.
• 8.45am all children are expected to be sat at their seats whilst the register is taken beginning to engage in their morning work task. If children arrive after 8.45 into the classroom they will be marked as late (L).
• 8.55 am registers shut. By this time, the school gates will have closed and children and parents will be directed to the office to register their child’s attendance. This will be marked as U on the register.

Afternoon registration

• The afternoon register will be taken at 1.00pm and will be kept open until 1.20 pm.
  

If your child is ill, read the NHS’s ‘Is my child too ill for school?’ advice to help you decide whether they can go to school. If they are too ill to attend, you should let the school know by calling 0115 973 4956 or via WEDUC by 9 o'clock on the first day of absence and schools will record such absences as authorised. If the absence continues past a 48-hour period, please contact the school again to ensure they are aware of circumstances with a timescale for when you feel your child will be able to return. If the absence due to illness is ongoing or frequent, please speak to Mrs Beardmore, the Senior Attendance Champion to see what support can be put in place.

If your child is too ill to attend school, school will record these absences as authorised. In the majority of cases medical evidence is not needed, but we may ask you for evidence where:

- Your child is regularly absent because of illness, to assess how we can help your child by putting the right support in place.

- In a small number of cases where they have reason to believe your child was not too ill to attend and a conversation cannot resolve the issue.

If you are asked to provide evidence this does not need to be a letter from your doctor or consultant, and doctors will not usually provide such letters. It can, instead, be appointment cards, prescriptions, or notes of previous consultations (including from the NHS App).

To avoid disruption to your child’s attendance, medical and dental appointments should not be booked during the school day whenever reasonably possible. When this is unavoidable, you should ask the school in advance for a leave of absence and collect them as close to the time of the appointment as possible and return them to school for the rest of the school day afterwards. We will ask you to provide evidence at the time. This does not need to be a letter from your doctor or consultant, and doctors will not usually provide such letters. It can, instead, be appointment cards, prescriptions, or notes of previous consultations (including from the NHS App).

Mrs Buxton (Headteacher)/ Mrs Beardmore (Senior Attendance Champion) will allow pupils to be absent from the school site for certain educational activities, or to attend other schools or settings.

We will only grant a leave of absence to a pupil during term time if the request meets the specific circumstances set out in the 2024 school attendance regulations. These circumstances are:

• Taking part in a regulated performance, or regulated employment abroad
• Attending an interview
• Study leave
• A temporary, time-limited part-time timetable
• Exceptional circumstances

A leave of absence is granted at the the school's discretion, including the length of time the pupil is authorised to be absent for.

Leave of absence will not be granted for a pupil to take part in protest activity during school hours.

As a leave of absence will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, it is unlikely a leave of absence will be granted for the purposes of a family holiday in line with the DfE working together to improve school attendance (applies from 19 August 2024), which states ‘generally, the DfE does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be exceptional circumstance’

Grange Primary School considers each application for term-time absence individually, taking into account the specific facts, circumstances and relevant background context behind the request.

Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least 6 weeks before the absence, and in accordance with any leave of absence request form, accessible via the school website or from the office team. The headteacher may require evidence to support any request for leave of absence.

Other valid reasons for authorised absence include (but are not limited to):

• Illness (including mental-health illness) and medical/dental appointments
• Religious observance – where the day is exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the pupil’s parent(s) belong(s). If necessary, the school will seek advice from the parent’s religious body to confirm whether the day is set apart
• Parent(s) travelling for occupational purposes 
• If the pupil is currently suspended or excluded from school (and no alternative provision has been made)

Other reasons the school may allow a pupil to be absent from the school site, which are not classified as absences, include (but are not limited to):

• Attending an offsite approved educational activity, sporting activity or visit or trip arranged by the school
• Attending another school at which the pupil is also registered (dual registration)
• Attending provision arranged by the local authority
• Attending work experience
• If there is any other unavoidable cause for the pupil not to attend school, such as disruption to travel caused by an emergency, a lack of access arrangements, or because the school premises are closed