Attendance

Ensuring that our children are punctual and have good attendance is a priority for our school. Our mission at Bethersden Primary School is to provide every child with an engaging, exciting curriculum, in a school where they feel like they belong. Quite simply, we don't want our children missing out on this. Evidence from the Department of Education supports this. Pupils who perform better at the end of primary school missed fewer days than those who didn’t perform as well (https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/18/school-attendance-important-risks-missing-day/)

We encourage parents to be as mindful about attendance as we are. There are times when having a day off school may be unavoidable, but we want to work with parents to minimise poor attendance.

For planned absences we ask parents to complete a Planned Absence form, which can be obtained through our school office. We will consider every application individually; however our policy is not to grant leave of absence for a holiday other than in the most exceptional circumstances. An application must be made, with appropriate evidence, in advance of the intended holiday.

From April 2017 Kent Local Authority guidance advises that penalty notices will be issued for 10 or more unauthorised sessions within a 50 school day period, these sessions do not need to be consecutive.

On receipt of the Notice the Penalty will be £120 per parent reducing to £60 if paid within 21 days. Failure to pay the penalty in full at the end of the 28 day period may result in prosecution by the attendance service. Please note, it is KCC, not the school that make the decision to issue a penalty notice and receive any fine paid.