Our Attendance

Attendance and absence

At Woolaston School, we recognise the importance of regular attendance. The overall level of attendance that we aim to achieve is 100%. Ideally, there should be no unauthorised absence.

All pupils should attend school for every session that is available to them, unless the reason for their absence is one that meets the school’s criteria for authorising absences, e.g. illness, non-routine medical/dental appointments, religious observance, educational visits and another unavoidable cause.

Legal Duty as a Parent
The parent of any child at Woolaston School has a legal duty to secure the regular attendance of that child. Failure to secure the regular attendance at school of a registered pupil is a criminal offence which can lead to prosecution of the parent(s) in a magistrates’ court.

Gloucestershire Local Authority have produced information leaflets which parents are advised to download and read. These leaflets are available by following the link below:

Leaflet for parents about attendance

Leaflet for parents about Penalty Notices

Leaflet for parents about Prosecution for Non-attendance at school

Holidays During Term-Time
With effect from the 1st September 2013, the Department for Education changed the legislation about children's absence from school. The legislation makes it clear that more affordable holidays are not exceptional circumstances.

Head teachers have the discretion to authorise holiday during term-time in exceptional circumstances. The school's Attendance Policy makes clear that the requirement for exceptional circumstances means that the vast majority of requests will be refused and, if the holiday is taken anyway, this will constitute unauthorised absence which may result in the issue of a penalty notice to each parent in respect of each absent child.

Please refer to the 'Policies' section of this website, which can be found via the 'Parent' menu for the latest Attendance Policy.

Parents are requested at all times to contact the school office to discuss any absence from school.