Absence, Illness & Attendance

Should I keep my child off school?

Check the pdf below for a quick answer for most common illnesses.

Absence

If your child is unable to attend school, please inform the school office as soon as possible.  This can be done via WEDUC, emailing admin@stmichaels.reading.sch.uk or by phoning the school office on 0118 901 5550 and selecting option one.  An answer phone is available out of office hours.

Returning to School following Illness

Whether a child should attend school, or return to school following absence, depends upon the nature of the illness.  Specific advice from the NHS can be found here, and from Public Health England can be found here. 

Where symptoms include vomiting and/or diarrhoea, please note that children should not return to school until 48 hours after those symptoms have stopped.

Appointments

Where possible, medical and dental appointments should be arranged for a time outside of school hours.  We appreciate that this is not always possible and if you do need to collect your child during the school day, please let their teacher know.  Children should be collected from the school office they must be signed out.  We would not expect children to be absent for more than a half day for a doctors/dentist appointment.

Administering Medication

Prescribed medicines can only be administered at school by prior arrangement.  In such cases, parents will be asked to provide the below consent form to the school office and to provide the medicine clearly in its original dispensed packaging.  The consent form will clearly indicate the name of the child, the name and dosage of the medication and any further details which may be necessary.   In some cases, when medicine needs to be given for a prolonged period, a letter from the child’s General Practitioner may be required. 

Illness in School

When children fall ill, school staff will attempt to contact parents or carers so that the child can be collected.  The school expects parents and carers to arrange for their child to be collected as quickly as possible.  If the school is unable to reach priority contacts, we will attempt to reach other individuals from the child's contacts list.  It is therefore important that parents inform the school of any changes to their contact details.  

If any child is taken seriously ill and the school is unable to contact the parents, we will act “in loco parentis” (in the parents’ place) and take the best course of action we see fit for the child’s welfare. This may involve allowing appropriate medical staff to administer emergency medication.

Attendance Monitoring

At St Michael's we believe that the most important way that children learn is by being in school. We celebrate attendance through weekly class totals shared in assembly.

Where a child's attendance falls below 96%, we will monitor it carefully, every two weeks, to ensure that it increases. If it does not improve, we will send a letter reminding parents of the current attendance and our expectations.

Should your child's attendance fall below 90%, we will involve the Education Welfare Officer to monitor the situation. They will contact you via letter to offer support and highlight any concerns we may have. We may also, in conjunction with the EWO, have an attendance meeting in school. The table below shows the correlation between attendance and lessons missed. You can monitor your child's attendance yourself using WEDUC.

Punctuality

Arriving at school on time and ready to learn enables a child to make the most of their school day. The tables below show the impact of lateness and school days missed.

If you want to know more about how the school monitors attendance and what we can do to support the children to attend school regularly, please contact the school office.

Requests for Extended Periods of Absence

Regulations permit parents to request leave of absence for up to 10 continuous days in any school year. This request must be made to the Headteacher in writing long before the planned absence. It is only fair that parents know that the school cannot support such extended absence from the classroom and that such requests will not be authorised.  If you then choose to go on holiday, the Education Welfare Service will involve itself and you could be served with a fixed penalty notice. Two weeks holiday is 5% of the teaching time available for your child. Add on to that a few days illness and your child is going to have serious difficulty in keeping up and understanding what is being taught. 

There is a form to be filled in to notify us of your intention to take your child on holiday in term time and this is available from the school office.  The Head teacher will review the circumstances and provide you with a reply slip giving their decision.