Attendance at Queen Elizabeth's

We have an obligation to students and the Local Authority to ensure that our attendance is as high as possible; there is a link between poor attendance and reduced attainment. Our aim at Queen Elizabeth’s is for a student to achieve 95% attendance.

We would be grateful for your help in ensuring your child’s regular attendance, including their punctual arrival at school. Hopefully the following information will help you to do that.

If your child is ill. Please telephone 01795 533132 or email us at absence@queenelizabeths.kent.sch.uk before 9.30am. You do not need to then follow this up in writing.

Leave of absence for medical appointments and other brief absence. Please telephone or send a note or email in advance explaining the reasons for the absence. A Leave of Absence Slip will then be issued.

Lateness. If your child arrives to school after the register has been taken they will need to go to the office and sign in.

Holiday requests. The attendance regulations state that from the 1st September 2013 Headteachers may no longer grant any leave of absence during term time for holiday. This means that as a school we are not able to authorise any holiday requests and any holiday taken will be marked as unauthorised absence. The school is penalised for unauthorised absence so we hope that you will support us in this and not make any requests for holiday absence.

Absence calling. We operate an absence calling policy where we call parents when a child is absent from school where we have not been advised of a reason for the absence. We begin making calls at 9.30am, so all information received by this time, whether by telephone or email, is taken into account when we make the call. If you contact us after this time or your child arrives late at school (after 9.30), there is a chance you will have received or are about to receive a call from us. This is to safeguard your child and give you peace of mind.