Attendance

• The Education Act 1996 requires parents to ensure their children of compulsory school age receive efficient full-time education.
• A penalty notice of £160 can be given to a child who’s missed 5 days or more in a single term.
• Parent should be aware that although you may provide a reason for absence, without medical evidence it may be recorded as unauthorised, for which the local authority can issue a penalty notice.

• Family holidays should be taken during the school holiday dates.
• A holiday will incur a penalty notice from the council of £160 per parent, per child.
• Exceptional circumstances may be considered however, please be mindful that we follow the guidelines from Nottinghamshire County Council.

Pupils who arrive late for school may miss important work at the start of their day and in addition walking into a classroom late creates a disturbance for those who have already started their lesson.

It is expected that all our pupils arrive to school at 8.40am, ready to learn (8.30 am if your child is in Crystals). Late arrivals will be monitored closely, moving forward and will result in daily phone calls or letters home. If a pupil is late due to a medical appointment, please bring evidence of the appointment to the office either prior to the day of the appointment or when they are returning from the appointment. If it is in the form of a text message from the doctor, dentist or hospital please screenshot it and email it to the office at the email address above. If it is a letter, please bring it into the office and we will photocopy it for your child’s file.

Regular late arrivals or late arrivals with no reasonable reason may result in us inviting you into school for a meeting to discuss a way forward or us taking advice from the Local Authority to assist us with families who are late on a regular basis.

At The Carlton Infant Academy our day finishes at 3.15pm (3.30pm if your child is in Crystals). We do not permit early collection of pupils without prior consent for an exceptional reason.

To reiterate, if a pupil needs collecting early for a medical appointment, the school office staff have been asked to request evidence of the appointment before allowing the pupil to leave school. Please bring this with you when you come to collect your child or prior to the day of the appointment. If it is in the form of a text message from the doctors, dentist or hospital, please screenshot it and email it to the office at the email address above. If it is a letter, please bring it into the office and we will photocopy it for your child’s file.

In addition, if you are collecting your child early or bringing them late into school because their sibling or parent has a medical appointment, we will also require medical evidence.

Please be reminded that it is your responsibility to call the school to report your child’s absence. Any communication regarding a pupil’s illness, medical appointment or any other reason for the absence MUST be communicated to the school office via phone call, email, face to face or by Class DoJo to the class teacher so that the academy can mark the registers appropriately. Teachers are not able to always monitor Class DoJo as they have teaching commitments and may not reply promptly. Any absences not communicated to the office via email, phone call, (including voicemail left, face to face at the office or Class DoJo to the teacher will be marked as unauthorised.

Unauthorised leave of absence of 5 days/10 sessions (over a 10-week rolling period) can lead to you being issued with a penalty notice fine. The fines can be issued to both parents / carers for each child. 

The Carlton Infant Academy, with the assistance from the Redhill Academy Trust Attendance Officer, sends attendance monitoring letters to families where their children have multiple absences, low attendance or late arrivals. The school staff cannot discuss the contents of these letters on the school drive or in the foyer due to the GDPR. Should you wish to discuss the contents of the letter please call the office on the number above to make an appointment with the head teacher or The Redhill Academy Trust Attendance Officer.