Attendance and Absence

At Tolworth School we expect children to attend regularly and to arrive at school on time.  There is clear evidence that poor attendance has a very negative impact on children's learning and progress at school and affects their friendships too. All children are expected to achieve at least 97% attendance. Missing even 5 days of school  will put them below this figure, this includes sickness absence. The school, together with the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer, closely monitors the school’s attendance registers.  Attendance is monitored for punctuality and patterns of absence as well as overall attendance levels. Where absence drops below acceptable levels or there are other areas of concern with a child’s attendance the Education Welfare Service is informed.

Sickness
If your child is unwell and unable to attend school, please notify the school office by phone or email before 9.15am. As part of our responsibility for safeguarding, if your child is absent without a reason and we have not heard from you before 9.30am, then you will receive a text message from the school office asking for the reason for their absence. If your child has been vomiting or has had diarrhoea, they can return to school 48 hours after their last bout.

Punctuality
Please ensure that children arrive on time. The school day starts at 8.50am, Nursery starts at 8.45am. If your child is late for any reason, you must sign them into school by completing the Late Book, which can be found in the School Office. It is very disruptive for your child and the rest of their class if he/she constantly arrives late and they miss out on important learning and can become very anxious. It is also important children are collected on time at the end of the day.  However we do understand that sometimes pupils are late to school and parents/carers late picking up due to unforeseen circumstances and would ask that you phone the school office to keep us informed.

Appointments during the school day
We encourage you to try and make all appointments i.e. dentist and doctor's appointments, before or after school. We realise that this is not always possible and if you do have to take your child out of school during the day, we will need to see a copy of their appointment letter for your child’s records.

Holidays during Term Time
We ask you not to take children out of school to go on holiday or visit relatives abroad during term time as this is very disruptive to their learning. In line with changes to legislation the school is unable to authorise any holidays taken in term time. Parents/carers need to complete an Absence Request Form which can be downloaded or is available from the school office; these absences will be unauthorised.