Attendance
Committed to full attendance
ABSENCES: Please use the button below to access our online form to report absences, lateness and appointments.
By using the form above, you will not need to email the Attendance Officer. However, you must ensure that you complete the form for each day that your child is absent. Please note that our sickness and diarrhoea policy for returning to school is 48 hours since the last bout of illness.
Term Time Holiday Requests: Please use the button below to access our online form to make a term time holiday request.
You should be aware of the following: With regards to planned absence (in term time), the legal position is clear: parents do not have the right to take their child(ren) out of school for holidays during term time. By law you must ask permission for your child to miss school and if you fail to gain the school’s permission and still go away on holiday you will be referred to the Local Authority Attendance Officer and may risk receiving a £80 penalty notice per parent per child and/or prosecution.
The College will consider each request for planned absence on an individual basis, taking into account the following factors: the time of year of the proposed trip; whether the dates are close to any exam dates; the pupil’s overall level of attendance and, in particular, whether holiday has already been taken during any previous school year; the age of the pupil and the ability of the pupil to catch up on the work missed; and any exceptional circumstances.
Supporting the Full Attendance of all Pupils
The College is firmly committed to the full attendance of all pupils. All pupil attendance is closely monitored and significant patterns of absence or drops in attendance of below 95% will lead to offers of support and interventions. In the first instance, we will contact you by letter to inform you of current attendance. Thereafter we may invite parents and their child to a meeting at which we would discuss the barriers to attendance and make an Attendance Action Plan together. We are sensitive to individual circumstances and are keen to work together with families to improve the attendance of all our pupils. Please click here to go to the Cambridgeshire County Council website for current guidance on ‘Attendance’, ‘Non-Attendance and the Law’ and ‘Term time holidays’.
If you need to contact the Attendance Office, please email attendance@sawstonvc.org
You can find the College’s attendance policy in the downloads section below.