Attendance (Including Punctuality and Absence)

Our whole school community has a responsibility for ensuring good school attendance. 

At Orwell Multi Academy Trust, we expect all children to be in school every day, unless they are too ill to attend. Term time holiday will not be authorised and will result in a fine. Unauthorised absence will result in legal intervention.

Every school in the Trust has staff who can support you with your child’s attendance, so we ask that you work with us to ensure that your child is in school, on time, every day.

There are 190 school days in an academic year, leaving 175 days free for families. Please remember that headteachers are not permitted to grant leave of absence on school days unless there are exceptional circumstances. If you need to take time out of school for any reason please contact the school to arrange an appointment to make a request for permission.

Whenever possible, we ask parents to make every effort to avoid making medical or dental appointments during the school day and try to arrange these during school holidays or after school. (We do appreciate that this is not always possible.) Where appointments in school time are unavoidable, it is essential that you both take and collect your child from school, bringing them back once their appointment is over. The Local Authority also requires that we hold evidence of their appointment for school records.