Attendance Contacts

01227 931345

Attendance Officer: Mrs J Deadman and Mrs Sherred
Contact: tws_attendance@swale.at

97% Attendance

The Whitstable School expects every student to have at least 97% attendance. We want all our young people to achieve their full potential and to progress into their chosen career. Barriers such as poor attendance will hinder, delay or stop their progress.

Medical Appointments

Please can parents try wherever possible to arrange doctor or dentist appointments outside of school time, as this will impact your child’s attendance. If this is not possible then please can we request that students do not take the whole day off and come in on either the morning or the afternoon of the same day.

Attendance Report for Parents

As a school, we have a duty to ensure that all students attend regularly so they achieve their full potential. The school sets a level of 97% attendance for every student, which is endorsed by the Department for Education, Ofsted and the Local Authority.

Any Student who attendance falls below 97% will be sent a standard letter stating the attendance, and any further action that may be taken if it does not improve. This is monitored weekly and students may be spoken to.  The Whitstable School work with outside agencies to support us to track and action poor attendance.  Parents and guardians may receive correspondence from the school as soon as their child’s attendance falls below the expected level of 97%, even if their child has been absent for genuine illness.

Parents informing us of absences due to illness does not automatically guarantee it will be authorised; this will be determined by the school, depending on current attendance levels and whether medical evidence has been provided. We do not require letters from GPs but any medication packaging or an appointment card from the doctor will be enough.

Your child should be in school by 8.30am every day as lessons start at 8.40am. Any student arriving after this time will receive a detention.

Holidays

We do not authorise holidays and ask parents and guardians to book holidays out of term time.  If you decide to withdraw your child without our permission, we will issue a penalty notice from Kent County Council, which will be £60 per child, per parent including stepparents.  This will rise to £120 per parent per child if not paid within 21 days.  If there are exceptional circumstances, the head teacher may agree to authorise, but this is very rare.

If you require further clarification on what  is classed as authorised or unauthorised attendance, please have a look at our parental attendance information leaflet at the bottom of this page. 

 

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