Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Absence from School – Penalty Notices & Fines

 

You may remember in previous correspondence we informed you that attendance at school has now become a nationwide priority and, as such, from the start of this academic year (2022/2023) we would be resuming attendance monitoring with the Education Welfare Service (EWS) at East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

 

Penalty Notices & Fines

We wanted to remind you that Penalty Notices and Fines will be applied to any unauthorised absences from school that amounts to 10 or more sessions in any 13 week period (1 day is equivalent to 2 sessions).

 

As we have now processed the first 13 weeks of this school year with the Education Welfare Officer, this unfortunately means that a small number of you may receive penalty notices and fines for unauthorised absences taken at the beginning of the school year. We will be writing to you shortly with information if this is the case, and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council will be in touch directly.

 

Authorised and Unauthorised Absence

Absence from school will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. Although we understand and sympathise with the reasons for booking holidays and breaks during term time, the Trust and its schools agree to follow the law, and as such the provision for Headteachers to authorise absence purely for the purpose of a family holiday cannot be recorded as an exceptional circumstance. We would also like to reiterate that any absence from school without a reason given is marked as an unauthorised absence, and Headteachers can’t retrospectively authorise absence for any reason.

 

Information & Policy about Absence

There is a section on the school website that explains about absence, and the policy is available

 

 

 

from Edukos Trust’s website at the following addresses:-

 

General absence information:

http://www.hookprimary.co.uk/school-absence-attendance-in-school/

 

 

Absence due to illness:

http://www.hookprimary.co.uk/absence-medical-illness/

 

Absence in exceptional circumstances:

http://www.hookprimary.co.uk/absence-exceptional/

 

Edukos Trust Absence Policy:

https://www.edukos.co.uk/policies/

 

We hope that the above links will provide all the information you need but if you would like any further clarification, please do not hesitate to let us know.

 

Kind regards

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mrs C M Ainley

Headteacher