http://documents.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/HIAS/Everydaycounts.pdf

Tweseldown Infant School open times are 8.35am - 3.05pm.

Tweseldown Infant School is open for 32.5 hours every week.

Good attendance and punctuality at school are essential for children's learning. Please call the office before 9am if your child is ill explaining what the illness is.

Children should be kept off for 48 hours after the last bout of sickness or diarrhoea. Please read our ‘Fit to be at school policy’.

Leave of absence

At Tweseldown Infant School, we take the issue of attendance very seriously. We expect every child’s level of attendance to be at least 96%. We also expect children to arrive in the classroom before the register is taken at 8.45am. Families with persistent lateness and/or absence will be referred to the Local Authority which includes the Legal Intervention Team.

Why is regular attendance important?

There is a vast amount of evidence to show that children who have below average attendance are at a severe disadvantage. Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life. Every lesson in school matters and if your child is often absent it will result in gaps in their learning. This may interrupt the continuity of their education and impede their progress. If your child does not attend school regularly, they will miss out on other aspects of school life. They may find it difficult to form friendship groups and may miss out on social events. They may miss letters home or information which needs a response. This can affect their ability to feel part of the school community.

If there are exceptional circumstances, you must apply for a leave of absence by completing a form available from the office. However, authorised absences are not automatically granted.

Once you have registered your child at a school, it is your responsibility to make sure that he/she attends regularly and non-attendance might result in penalties for non-attendance.

Medical Appointments

Parents should try to make appointments outside of school hours wherever possible. Where appointments during school time are unavoidable, we ask that parent to notify the school in advance of the appointment wherever possible. The pupil should only be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary for the appointment. In most circumstances, a child should not miss a whole day at school for an appointment. If a pupil must attend a medical appointment during the school day, they must provide evidence of the appointment in writing. Without this evidence, the time out of school would be unauthorised. 

Other Absence 

As set down by the Department for Education, schools are only able to authorise absence from school in exceptional circumstances. In making a request for an authorised absence from school, you will need to explain why the circumstances are exceptional. Please note there is no general right to authorise absence for a family holiday and if you take your child out of school without permission, the absence will be unauthorised and a Penalty Notice may be considered. Unauthorised absence is an absence not approved by the school and will be coded on your child's attendance record as one of the following:

O - unauthorised absence / U - late after close of registration

G - non-approved leave of absence (holiday)

Please note: penalty notices may be issued for 10 or more half-day sessions (equivalent to 5 school days which do not need to be consecutive) or time before/after a bank holiday or INSET day to avoid the ten sessions of unauthorised absence in the last 10 school week period. If you require clarification, or you have exceptional circumstances for applying for your child's leave of absence, please complete an absence form to request a leave of absence.

We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

• Please find our Attendance policy here:download.asp
• Please find our Fit To Be At School policy:download.asp