Chidham Parochial
Attendance
School Attendance and Absence
Parents and carers are responsible for ensuring that their child attends and stays at school, it is the school’s responsibility to support attendance.
Regular attendance is important to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for all of our children. The school supports the view that every lesson counts and reports to you personally on your child’s attendance at regular intervals throughout the year. Term time holiday is only authorised in exceptional circumstances. If you wish to take your child away from school during term time you will need to inform the Headteacher. The school reserves the right to fine parents who do not uphold high levels of attendance.
You can find our attendance and absence policy on our policies page:
Please do everything possible to help your child attend school and support their learning. Shopping trips, waiting in for a delivery, outings, parental illness, visits to relatives and lack of school uniform are not acceptable reasons for missing school. Medical appointments should be arranged if possible outside the school day. Where this is not possible it is expected that pupils only miss part of the day.
Children need to be in class for registration by 8.45 a.m. Those who arrive after the register has been taken are marked as late and the time of arrival is noted in the register.
Registers are closed at 9.15 a.m. We are required to mark children who arrive after this time as absent and this will be unauthorised unless a parent or guardian gives a valid reason. If your child is absent, for any reason, please let us know either by telephone or letter on the first day of absence. The reason for an absence is noted in the school register. Unexplained or inappropriate absences have to be recorded as unauthorised.
School Communications and Closures
The school uses MCAS (My Child At School) as a source of instant communication with its stakeholders. MCAS is also used to send home the weekly “Friday Flyer” and letters for trips and visits.
On the rare event of the school being forced to close for bad weather or unforeseen circumstances, all parents would be notified via MCAS and home learning will be set on Seesaw (a communication tool between class teacher and families). A message would also be displayed on the school website and via our Social Media accounts. We ask that all parents sign up to MCAS on starting the school so that rapid and clear communication is always possible.