High Hurstwood Church of England Primary School

Regular attendance at school promotes pupils’ well-being, maximises progress in learning and helps pupils reach their potential. The attendance pattern for all children is monitored termly with the school seeking to work actively with parents to ensure a regular pattern is maintained. One of our basic principles is to celebrate success. 

It is our duty to promote 100% attendance for all children. For our children to take full advantage of the educational opportunities offered it is vital that our pupils are at school, on time, every day the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable.

All children have the right to an education and we have put in place appropriate procedures to support this. We believe that the most important factor in promoting good attendance is development of positive attitudes towards school and learning.

 Good attendance is important because:

• statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and absence below 95%
• regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically
• regular attenders find school routines, school work and friendships easier to cope with
• regular attenders find learning more satisfying
• regular attenders are most successful in transferring between primary school, secondary school, higher education and employment or training

 The Governors and the Headteacher, in partnership with parents have a duty to promote full attendance at school.

Absence during Term-Time

The law does not grant parents an automatic right to take their child out of school during term time. Permission must be sought in advance and must be for ‘exceptional circumstances’.

 Absence from school will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. When deciding whether to allow term time leave, for any reason, the school will only consider:

• the reason for the leave, including if the absence is unavoidable,and, beyond the control and/or decision making of parents;
• the time and duration of the leave - whether or not the leave could have been taken during the statutory school holiday periods;
• child’s record of attendance;
• learning that will be missed.

As of September 2024 and in line with East Sussex Council practice alongside the DfE "Working Together' document. You can be fined by East Sussex Council if your child is absent for 5 consecutive school days or more.

Persistent Absence 

The Department of Education track school attendance figures, It is considered that attendance of 90% or below is persistent absence which in turn, has to be reported to parents by the school.

We are required by the DFE to send attendance letters home to keep parents informed. We will be sending these at the beginning of each term, regarding the previous term. This percentage will include all absences (illness, medical, authorised and unauthorised holidays, etc).

Absences through illnesses, medical appointments and other exceptional circumstances sometimes cannot be avoided but we still have to inform you of your child’s attendance if it reaches below the 90% threshold.

Please rest assured that we are not questioning your child’s absences through illness, however, the DFE are trying to promote good attendance and support parents on how to make improvements by requesting that schools keep parents informed of their child's attendance throughout the academic year.

Since the return after COVID restrictions, attendance in schools have dropped dramatically and we are still trying to return to the same percentages we had before COVID.

Further information

• Click here to see our current Attendance policy on our policy page.
• Advice to Parents from East Sussex County Council
• Click here for a helpful website from NHS about if your child is too ill for school.
• Withdrawal from Learning form below, this must be filled out if you are wanting to take your child out of school, there is a PDF or Word format below: