Attendance

‘The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.’

Department for Education, August 2024

At Ley Top Primary School, we want every child to find school irresistible and want to be at school every day. Parents have a duty to make sure that their child attends school every day and we want to support all families to make this a reality.

Holidays during term time not only disturb the learning of your child but also those in the rest of the class. Term time holidays cannot and will not be authorised. We follow Bradford’s guidance on absence reporting procedures and process fines on behalf of the Local Authority in line with their policy. Further information can be found on the school website. We strongly encourage all families to take holidays outside of term time.

We know that children can be unwell and support absences when they are too unwell to attend school. In many cases, children feel better as the day progresses so we are happy to have children in school with colds or who are feeling ‘under the weather’. The NHS has produced some supportive guidance to help you decide whether your child needs to be off school.

If you decide your child is not well enough to attend school we ask that you call the school office between 8.00am and 9.00am to report their absence. If you do not contact the school we have a legal responsibility in line with child protection and safeguarding procedures to phone you. This phone call is to check that everything is ok and to see if we can help in any way.

If your child’s attendance at school starts to cause concern you will be contacted by the Pastoral Support Team to arrange a meeting to offer support. Failure to improve attendance could lead to the Education Safeguarding Attendance Officer becoming involved.