Attendance
Attendance and Punctuality are both high priorities at Leatherhead Trinity. Good attendance is related to good progress and impacts directly on life choices. We monitor attendance and punctuality every week to make sure we celebrate those children and classes that are attending well and arriving on school in time daily. We incentivise good attendance and punctuality with certificates, prizes, badges, wrist bands and even our school hamster who spends the week in the class with the best attendance! We support families in any way we can to get their children into good attendance habits. We will also not hesitate to challenge families where school days are lost for reasons other than illness and we work closely with our Inclusion Officer in these cases to make sure attendance improves.
Absences
When a child is absent from school, a telephone call to leave an absence message on the school answer machine (Option 2) or email to admin@leatherheadtrinity.surrey.sch.uk must be made on the first day of absence before 9.15am. If no telephone call or email is made by 9.30am, the school office will send a text and email to the parent/carers to ascertain the reason for absence. If the office does not here from you after the first reminder, we will contact the second contact until an answer has been given. For every subsequent day that your child is absent, please ring the school to confirm that he/she will not be attending.
We ask that parents keep children at home who have suffered from sickness or diarrhoea for 48hrs.
Absences without adequate explanation must be regarded as unauthorised and could lead to a penalty notice as per the government attendance rules. You can find more information about unauthorised absences here Penalty Notice Fine.
A record of absences is sent to parents at the end of every term.
We ask that medical appointments are made out of school hours; if this can't be arranged and you need to take your child out of school for a dental check-up or a medical appointment, please inform the school well in advance. If a child is taken out of school during the day, parents must sign their child out at the main office.
Holidays will not be authorised during term time and penalty fines may be issued to parents by the Inclusion Officer. This could mean that if unauthorised holiday is taken during term time of 5 days or more both parents/ carers (any responsible adult living in the home) may be liable to a fixed penalty notices of £80 per child, this will increase to £160 per child if not paid within 28 days.
Only in exceptional circumstances will leave of absence be authorised by the Headteacher.
Punctuality
The school is open to children from 8.30 and they can enter classrooms from 8.40. The register is taken from 8.45am and closes at 8.50am.
If your child is going to be late for school for any reason, please inform the school office so that we are able to register it as an official absence. Children who arrive after 9.20am will be recorded as an 'unauthorised absence' in the register.
Persistent absence and lateness will be reported to the Senior Inclusion Officer for possible subsequent action as persistent lateness seriously disrupts the child’s learning.
