Reporting & Requesting Pupil Absence
Lower School
For absence due to illness please call the School Office 01235 524658 or email attendance@ola.org.uk.
For medical and dental appointments please email your child’s class teacher to request permission for absence.
For all other planned absence please make your request in good time to the Head of OLA, email headspa@ola.org.uk. All requests are considered on an individual basis.
Senior School including OLA 6th
For absence due to illness please call the School Office 01235 524658 or email attendance@ola.org.uk in the first instance. If you also ‘cc’ the Form Tutor as a secondary source, this will ensure that the registration process is completed appropriately and avoids any situation in which a pupil will be misregistered.
For medical and dental appointments please email your child’s Form Tutor to request permission for absence.
For all other planned absence please make your request in good time to the Head of OLA, email headspa@ola.org.uk. All requests are considered on an individual basis.
DfE GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOLS ON ATTENDANCE
The government’s expectations of all schools, including independent schools, is outlined in a publication on the DfE website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-attendance
School to promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence. Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled; and, act early to address patterns of absence.
Parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.
Pupils to be punctual to their lessons.
In addition, the following guidance is also provided for schools in responding to a request for a family holiday during term time (see p20):
Head teachers should only authorise leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. If a head teacher grants a leave request, it will be for the head teacher to determine the length of time that the child can be away from school. Leave is unlikely, however, to be granted for the purposes of a family holiday as a norm.
In practice, this means that pupil absence for what is deemed to be a ‘family holiday’ during term time will be marked as unauthorised, unless there are “exceptional circumstances”.
Covid-19
The latest government guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-safely-with-respiratory-infections-including-covid-19
Please follow government guidelines if you or your child develop symptoms, and inform the School as soon as possible by email to Nurse@ola.org.uk and Attendance@ola.org.uk if either you or your child test positive.