Attendance & Punctuality
Attendance & Punctuality
Attendance
If you are not in school then you must have a justifiable reason and parents must contact the school before 8:15am to explain the reason for the absence. We require parents to contact us each day that the child is absent, unless this has been agreed in advance, to keep us updated on the situation.
Illness
If a child has viral sickness and / or diarrhoea, they should only return to school 48 hours after the symptoms have subsided.
If your child is absent from school for a continuous period of more than 4 days we may ask for medical evidence to confirm the absence.
Appointments
Whenever possible, dental, medical and other appointments should be made outside of school hours. We do appreciate that this is not always possible and emergencies occur. School must be notified prior to the appointment and if you have an appointment card, text message, email or letter confirming the appointment time then please send a copy of this to the Attendance Office. Failure to provide this will result in the absence being marked as unauthorised.
Please note:
Attendance below 90% means your child is designated as a persistent absentee which will automatically trigger involvement of the Attendance Officer and medical evidence will be required to verify each absence related to ill health.
Absences away from school without the school's permission is truancy and will be reported as such.
The 24 hour dedicated absence line is: 0208 339 4518 (years 7-11) or you can email: attendance@hollyfield.kingston.sch.uk
Punctuality
All pupils are expected to be in school by 8:30am each day to register with their form tutor. If a pupil is late without a valid reason they will automatically be given a 15-minute detention which they will serve at lunchtime that day. Should your child not attend this detention it will be escalated to a 45 minute detention which they will be expected to attend at the end of the same school day. The school will notify parents via Classcharts that this is happening. Failure to attend this will result in further sanctions being applied.
If there are major road problems on any day which means a lot of pupils are arriving late through no fault of their own then the Attendance Officer may decide not to set detentions for these pupils.