My child is unwell today – what should I do?

Everyone is unwell at times and needs to stay at home to get better. However, parents and carers have a legal duty to ensure that their children attend school regularly and punctually in order to optimise their learning, achieve the best they can and get the most out of their school experience.  Failure to do so is an offence under section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996.

If your child is absent you must tell the school as soon as possible. You can do this by:

  • Calling us on 01474 352488 on the first day of absence, and then each day that your child is absent. It is important to do this everyday so where know where your child is. We will make a note on our registers of when we spoke to you and what you said.
  • Visiting the school office in person, where you can speak to a member of staff. Parents who have more than one child at the school use this method.
  • When your child returns to school, please send a note in with an explanation of the absence – you must do this even if you have already telephoned us – it is important for our records.

If your child is absent we will:

  • Telephone or text you on the first day of absence. We may do this even if you have already called in and left a message. We will note down on our registers the time we made, or tried to make, contact with you, and the reason you gave for absence.
  • If we have not heard from you we will send you a letter requesting that you fill in an absence slip, where you will need to explain your child’s absence on the days they were not at school;

If we are very concerned and worried about your child’s attendance because it is low, we will:

  • Invite you in to discuss the situation with our Attendance Officer and/or Pastoral Leaders, Assistant Headteacher or Executive Headteacher;
  • Refer the matter to the Kent Education Attendance Officer (EWO) if attendance moves below 90%.

What happens if only one of my children is ill but it means I can’t bring the others to school?

The absences for those children who are not unwell is unauthorised. It will be recorded as code O. Code O will go towards a penalty notice (or court proceedings).

What happens if I am unwell, as a parent/carer, and I can’t bring my child/ren in to school?

The absences for those children who are not unwell is unauthorised. It will be recorded as code O. Code O will go towards a penalty notice (or court proceedings).

Only the school can authorise the absence

Parents and carers think that they can authorise their child’s absence, but this is not the case. Only the school has the authority to do this. If your child is away from school due to a lot of illness, then the school may decide not to authorise the absence. If our attendance staff believe that this is a possibility in the near future for your child, they will get in touch with you to let you know and warn you, that in order to have any future absences authorised due to illness, the school will require medical evidence.

What is medical evidence?

Medical evidence is something that you could easily get if your child has been unwell. It is NOT asking your GP for a letter, it is NOT asking you to tell us all the details of your child’s medical history. Here are some suggestions of what you can bring to us:

  • An appointment card/slip that is from your surgery and the date on this matches a day your child was absent from school
  • A copy of the prescription that has been issued – it must be in the name of the child who is absent and also cover the date/s of absence
  • A record on your mobile telephone that you called your GP surgery to ask for advice. When you call, please ask for the name of the person that you spoke to. We will ask to see the number that you called, how long the phonecall was for and the name of the person you spoke to.

If the school has authorised the absence due to illness it will appear as code I on your child’s attendance record. Code I means ‘illness’

If the school has not authorised the absence it will appear as a code O on your child’s attendance record. Code O means ‘reason provided for absence but the school has chosen not to authorise’