How we respond to absences

At Westcourt Primary & Nursery School our staff work hard to monitor the attendance of the whole school.  We are here to help if you have any troubles or concerns about your child's time at school, or if you are having a difficult time getting your child into school.  Westcourt works closely with SEAAS (South East Attendance Service) who visit the school fortnightly to discuss and track any poor attendance.

By law, every child that is statutory school age, must attend school five days a week unless they are unwell.  If your child is unwell you must call our absence line before 9am each day and leave a message stating your child's name, their class and reason for their absence, please do not just advise they are unwell as we have to indicate a reason.  This information will then be added to their attendance records.  You can also contact us by email at; admin@westcourt.kent.sch.uk  If we have not received a message from you regarding your child's absence, you will be sent a text message for every day your child is not in school.

When your child takes time off from school or you take them out of school for appointments, you will need to provide evidence for the reason why.  The evidence can be:

• A proof of appointment (card, screen shot of a text message or letter)
• Medicine prescription label (with the date and name of your child visible)

You can email this information to admin@westcourt.kent.sch.uk or give this to your child in their bag so that the office can take a copy.

A text will be sent to you every day that your child is absent, if we have not had contact from you before 9am.  If you have informed school that your child has had medical advice to stay home, you will need to provide a copy of this, so that the absence can be authorised.  Any non attendance, without contact or evidence, will be unauthorised and will effect your child's attendance.

When your child's attendance falls below 96%, you will be contacted via letter or email and your child's attendance will then be monitored by the school and the SEAAS.  When attendance is monitored, it is possible that the attendance is put on 'Fast Track'. This could lead to parents/carers being prosecuted.  

Holiday requests 

Holiday requests will not be authorised and can result in a Penalty Notice.  If you take your child out of school during term time, it is possible that a Penalty Notice may be requested by the local authority and issued to each parent of each child taken out of school as stipulated in the Education (Penalty Notices) (England) Regulations 2007 (amendment 2013).

Any granting of one exceptional day is at the discretion of the Head Teacher.

Nursery absences

Children are expected to attend their nursery sessions (morning/afternoon) five days a week.  If your child is unwell, you must call the office before 9am and report your child absent.  We will then require proof of your child's absence (see above).  Nursery places are in high demand, so if your child is not attending regularly and their attendance falls to 87% or below you may run the risk of having your child's nursery place withdrawn.

NHS guidance - Is my child too ill for school?

COVID-19

There are no longer specific rules relating to COVID-19 in schools, colleges, childcare and other education settings.  Please see below attachment from NHS on 'What to do if you have tested positive'

Medication

Where clinically possible, medicines should be prescribed in dose frequencies which enable them to be taken outside school hours i.e. for antibiotics that require administering three times a day you would be expected to administer this around school, for example; before school, after school and bedtime.  If your child has to have medicine four times a day, we would administer one dose during the school day.  You would need to complete a form to authorise the school to give your child medication, before bringing it into school.  This needs to be returned to the office or by email to; admin@westcourt.kent.sch.uk

A copy of this form is attached below.  Thank you.

Sickness & Diarrhoea (not 48 hours absence)

If your child is away from school with sickness or diarrhoea, please can you ensure that they return to school as soon as they are well enough to.  There is NO school rule or policy regarding 48 hours absence here at Westcourt Primary & Nursery School.

Fever in Children

Any cases of Strep A that have been diagnosed, have to be reported to the appropriate health department.  Currently the only nationally reported group A strep disease is STSS.  These cases are then reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), not directly to the school.  It is the healthcare professionals that would advise and not the school directly, if there were any cases.

You may have seen on the news that in some cases, schools may be offered a blanket vaccination of penicillin.  This is led by the medical professionals and schools will be contacted if this is the case.  This is not something that schools can request.

We hope this information helps.