Attendance is Important

Any absence affects the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular absence will seriously affect their learning. Research shows that almost half of children who miss 15 days of school a year do not reach the expected levels at the end of primary school.

Any pupil’s absence disrupts teaching routines so may affect the learning of others in the same class. Children are best safeguarded from exploitation and other risks in the wider community by attending school regularly where they are supervised by qualified and caring professionals.

Ensuring a child’s regular attendance at school is the legal responsibility of parents and registered carers and permitting absence from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution.

Please follow the link for our related policies.

Attendance and absence policies

Unplanned Absence

If a child is absent from school the parent must follow these procedures:

• Inform the school on the first day of absence before 9.15am, when our register closes, by contacting the school office staff by phone (01993 878 273) or email (office.3124@leafield.oxon.sch.uk).

• Contact the school on every further day of absence, again before 9.15am.

• Ensure that your child returns to school as soon as possible.

We will mark absence due to physical or mental illness as authorised, unless the school has a genuine concern about the authenticity of the illness.

Where the absence is longer than 5 days, or there are doubts about the authenticity of the illness, the school will ask for medical evidence, such as a doctor’s note, prescription, appointment card or other appropriate form of evidence. We will not ask for medical evidence unnecessarily.

If the school is not satisfied about the authenticity of the illness, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised and parents will be notified of this in advance.

Planned Absence

We encourage parents to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

Any planned appointment (medical or dental) or other absence, that is going to be longer than a couple of hours,  must be requested in advance using this form: 

If the appointment or other absence is going to be for less than a couple of hours, please contact the School Office by phone or email, 24 hours before the appointment takes place.

The school will consider your request and will aim to respond within 48 hours via email.

Holidays during term time may only be authorised under extremely exceptional circumstances. 

Punctuality 

The school day begins at 8.45am. We advise all parents to ensure their child is on site prior to this. The school register will be taken at 9am. All pupils arriving after this time are required to report to the main office with their parents, who will be expected to sign the late book and provide a reason for their absence.

If their arrival is before 9.15am it will be recorded as late - L code (Late before the close of register). The school register will officially close at 9.15am

All pupils arriving after 9.15am will be marked as having an unauthorised absence for the morning session - U code (Late after the close of register).