WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We want the children who attend HBJS to achieve their absolute best. This can only be possible if they are in school every day. We are aiming to achieve a whole school attendance figure of 96% by the end of the school year.
Attendance and Punctuality
Most children at Herne Bay Juniors attend regularly and on time. However, there are some children whose attendance and punctuality give cause for concern.
Remember the following:
The school gate opens at 8.35am. Children need to be in the classroom by 8.45am prompt for registration. Learning starts directly afterwards. If your child arrives after 8.45am they are marked late. If your child arrives after the close of registration at 9.15am, they are marked absent (unauthorised) for the morning session. Children who arrive late to school have a very unsettled start to their day. They also interrupt the teacher and the class as teaching has already started. Please ensure that your child arrives on time!
The school office should be notified before registration on the child’s first day of absence giving a full explanation of the reason. Any medical appointments should be made outside of school hours wherever possible. If you have no alternative but to take your child out of school for an appointment, to enable the school to authorise the absence you must provide medical evidence of the appointment. Other absences are regarded as unauthorised.
Holidays in term time
From September 2013 the Department for Education amended the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 1996 removing the Head Teacher’s ability to authorise leave of absence for a family holiday. Requests for holidays in term-time will not be authorised as the Regulations only allow schools to authorise absence (leave) in “exceptional circumstances”.
If you do decide to take your child out of school, it will show as an unauthorised mark on their attendance records and may be subject to a Penalty Notice. Penalty notices are issued to each parent of each child and the amount of the penalty will be £120, reduced to £60 if paid within 21 days. Failure to pay the penalty in full at the end of the 28 day period may result in prosecution by the Attendance Service.
The Local Authority is responsible for educating all children of compulsory school age and has powers to ensure that children attend school. Following new government guidelines, parents and carers can be prosecuted for irregular attendance and unauthorised absences and fined up to a maximum of £2500 or 3 months imprisonment
The school monitors your child’s attendance and punctuality and is obliged to refer children whose punctuality or attendance causes concern to The PRU Inclusion & Attendance Service. At this stage you will be informed and KCC will consider the appropriate action to be taken.
Please support your child’s education and the school by ensuring that your child attends regularly and on time and by notifying the school on your child’s first day of absence clearly stating the reason.