Committed to full attendance

Reporting an Absence

To report a pupil absence please telephone 01223 712623 (Attendance Office) or email attendance@sawstonvc.org. Please ensure that you report to the College everyday that your child is absent.

Please find the College’s attendance policy and the procedure for notifying the College of absence in the downloads section below.

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’.

Term Time Leave

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 £60 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.

Request for absence should be made by completing and submitting an online Leave of Absence Request Form.

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