Attendance

First day calling process:

Please telephone/email or contact the school office via lodersoffice@acornacademy.org or by calling 01308 423418 as soon as you know your child will be absent stating the reason for non-attendance - please do not leave a message saying they are unwell, please be specific, eg stomach bug, heavy cold.

If you are unsure if your child is fit to attend school, please refer to the NHS guidance ‘Is My Child Too Ill for School?’.

Office staff check all class registers between 8:55am and 9.15am on a daily basis, to identify those pupils who are absent. Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent, we initiate the first day contact procedures. If no message is left with the school office we will telephone in turn each of the contacts on the list provided by the parents/carers, if we are still unable to get confirmation as to why the child is not at school we will proceed to a welfare check (this is a visit to the home address). If we are still unable to confirm the child's welfare we will call 101 to report the child as missing. This is the school’s duty of care and safeguarding for your child.

Additional information:

Lateness

The class register opens at 08.40am and closes at 9.00am. If your child arrives after the register has started at 08.40am but before it has closed at 9.00am they will be marked as present. If they arrive between 9.00am and 9:15am they will be coded as late (L) - after the register has closed - if they arrive after 9:15am they will be coded as arriving unacceptably late (U) which is an unauthorised absence.

We are committed to providing a full and efficient educational experience for all pupils. We believe that if pupils are to benefit from education, good attendance is crucial. As a school we do all that we can to ensure maximum attendance for all pupils.

Term time holidays and appointments, such as dental and vision, should, where possible, be booked for holidays and weekends.

We cannot authorise term time holidays however we would appreciate you informing us in advance if you are planning such an absence.

You can see all relevant policies relating to attendance on our policies page.