Attendance and Term Dates

We place a high value on regular attendance at school and thank all of our families and staff who keep attendance levels at very high levels.

Below you will find a summary of our Attendance protocol and links to links to our attendance policy and the form that parents need to complete to apply for leave of absence from school for their child. There is also a table showing term dates for 2022-23 and 2023-24. 

Attendance Protocol Summary

The following information is a synopsis of the protocol relating to Leave of Absence as set out in our Attendance Policy June 2019. This information comes from KCC and applies to all Kent Schools. All absence requests will be dealt with in the same way.

Leave of Absence in term time can only be granted in exceptional circumstances. The Headteacher will consider each request for absence individually but can only grant such requests in exceptional circumstances. There is no right of appeal as the authorisation of absence is the sole responsibility of the Headteacher. The Headteacher cannot give retrospective approval so requests should be made in advance.

Exceptional circumstances may include:

• Families of Armed Forces personnel
• Where employer stipulates that holiday has to be taken during set period (letter from employer is required as evidence)
• Family trauma
• Travelling community where attending functions in line with culture
• Attending functions in line with culture and or religion.
• Although each request will be considered individually, we will never normally authorise leave of absence in term time under the following circumstances:
• At the beginning of school terms
• During assessment periods
• Where the child is persistently absent, including because of ill health. All requests for leave will be considered individually and such factors as existing attendance record will be considered in making the decision whether to grant leave e.g. absence will not be authorised if it takes a pupil’s absence record below 90%.

The main change is that the use of Penalty Notices is not limited to family holidays but for all unauthorised absences which are deemed suitable because there is persistent unauthorised absence from school.

Under the new Code of Conduct a Penalty Notice for unauthorised absence is only issued where a child has attendance of 90% or below (persistent absence level), or where there are compounding factors that put together worsen the circumstances. Examples of these factors include removing a child from school over a period of examination or a child repeatedly arriving to school late on top of having unauthorised family holidays in term-time. This level of attendance is equivalent to taking one day off school every two weeks, which is unacceptable.

Leave of absence taken without the Headteacher’s permission, or failure to return on the agreed date, will mean that the absence is unauthorised (truancy). The deliberate taking of leave in term time without or against school permission (where it can be clearly demonstrated that the parent/carer understood that permission had not or would not be given) may result in parents/carers being liable to a penalty notice. Penalty notices are issued to each parent of each and carry a fine per parent per child if paid within 21 days increasing per parent per child if paid between 21 and 28 days. Please see www.kent.gov.uk for up to date charges.

Mrs Lisa Higgs

Headteacher