Introduction
If your child is registered at a school he/she must by law attend that school regularly and punctually. Your child should only miss school if he/she is ill or unable to attend for some other unavoidable reason.
If your child is absent and school either does not receive an explanation from you, or considers the explanation unsatisfactory, we will record your child’s absence as ‘unauthorised’.
Key information
A child becomes of compulsory school age when they reach the age of five and, where a parent has elected to register their child at school, they must start school in the term following their fifth birthday at the latest (although parents of many children choose to send them earlier). A child continues to be of compulsory school age until the last Friday in June in the school year that they reach the age of 16. After this age, the legal requirement to participate in education or training will fall to the young person.
Your child’s school will authorise most absences for acceptable reasons:
- sickness
- unavoidable medical or dental appointments (if possible, arrange these for after school or during school holidays)
- days of religious observance
- requirements to self-isolate (as advised by Public Health Service England)