Attendance

If your child is ill, we require you to phone school on each day of the absence. If we do not receive a message regarding your child’s absence, we will contact home. On your child’s return, we must have a note explaining the cause of the absence. When your child is absent, please encourage them to keep up with any work they may have missed. For a prolonged absence due to illness your child’s Head of Year will collate work from each department ready for you to collect from reception.

School is unable to authorise holidays during school terms and fixed penalty notices will be issued when unauthorised holidays are taken. Parents and carers must write directly to the Headteacher for a request to be considered at least one month prior to the absence. Requests will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

The school will make contact with you if we have concerns about your child’s attendance falling, and will work closely with you to ensure that this improves.

Medical Reasons 

Please email attendance@nestonhigh.com detailing the reasons for the absence.

Exceptional Circumstances 

Amendments to the  Education  (Student Registration)  (England) Regulations 2006, in force from 1st September 2013, make clear that Headteacher's may not grant any leave of  absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

In  exceptional circumstances, when leave of absence is granted, the Headteacher will determine the number of school days a student can be away from School.

Parents should not plan for their child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement. Requests for planned leave of absence under exceptional circumstances should be made at least four weeks in advance of the start date of the requested absence, by completing the Leave of Absence Request Form. This form is linked below. The Headteacher cannot retrospectively authorise a planned absence.

The following will NOT be deemed to be exceptional circumstances:

• Family holiday
• Availability of less expensive holiday
• Availability of holiday accommodation
• Overlap with the beginning or the end of a term or a half term

In deciding whether to allow parents/carers to take children out of school in term time, the Headteacher  will consider factors such as:

• Purpose of absence
• Circumstances of the request
• Amount of time requested
• Nearness of examinations, assessments  or tests
• Overall attendance  record
• Any previous term time absences

Leave of Absence Request Form