Good school attendance is central to raising standards in education and ensuring the safeguarding of children. At St. Michael’s we follow East Sussex County Council guidance on school attendance.

The government expects schools and local authorities to promote good attendance and reduce absence, and to act early to address patterns of absence. Parents have a legal duty to ensure that their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school, attend regularly and that all pupils are to be punctual to their lessons.

If a child is absent from school for any reason, we ask parents and carers to telephone us before 9.00 am on the day of absence to let us know. If a child is absent and we have not heard from you, we will telephone to confirm that your child is supposed to be away and ask the reason why. We actively discourage absence and late arrival and will monitor and be alert to patterns of absence and poor punctuality.

To help you decide on whether your child needs to be off school due to illness, please see the guidance below:

Additionally, all children must be collected on time. The reason for this is two-fold: firstly, children who are left behind often feel an increasing level of anxiety and distress the longer that they are unsure of where their parents are. Clearly this is not a good thing to happen to any child. Secondly, the impact on the school of having a child left behind at the end of the day is also great as it requires a member of staff to supervise that child and this incurs an additional staffing cost.