What do you do if your child is unable to attend school?

To report your child's absence please call 01978 367 080 option 1

You must inform school if:

• your child is unable to attend school due to illness
• they have an upcoming medical/dental appointment and you need to collect them early
• absence due to other emergency/ exceptional circumstance

If your child has an illness or condition which is contagious such as chickenpox, impetigo, shingles, conjunctivitis etc, please let the office know so we can discuss the guidelines for your child's return to school.

If medication is needed by your child during a school day, you must complete a medical form which you can obtain from the office. Medication doses e.g., antibiotics will only be given once during a day by the office staff. All other medication doses must be given out of school time. This does not include medication for long term treatment however.

Children should give any throat lozenges, lip balms etc. to their class teacher to keep on their desk if needed at all. We cannot take the risk that a child may want to share these things with another child who of course could be allergic and be very ill.

If a child is suffering with sickness or diarrhoea, we have a 48hr policy for children to stay off school. This is in order for any illnesses not to spread to other children or staff.

Pupil absences should be reported to the school office before 9.15am at the latest.

Medical Appointments:

If your child needs a medical appointment and it cannot be made outside of school hours, please can you ensure you inform the school office. You may be asked to provide evidence of the appointment e.g. appointment letter, email, text etc, should your child be persistently late or absent.

Absence/Punctuality:

If a child’s attendance falls below 90%, this is classed as persistent absence, and parents/carers will receive a letter indicating this half-termly if this is the case. Unless in an exceptional case, children must be in school regularly otherwise they are missing out on their social, emotional and academic support which is vital for their development throughout school. We work with the Education Social Workers and school attendance team in the local authority to ensure school attendance improves. Our children deserve and are entitled to their education.

With regards to punctuality, letters will also be sent out to parents half-termly in relation to this. All children at Hafod Y Wern start learning as soon as they come into school with morning tasks related to handwriting, spelling/phonics, mental maths etc. Arriving 10/15 minutes late means over a week they are losing up to an hour or more learning time.

Running late?

Parents or guardians must accompany children into the school office to ensure safe arrival to school and to ensure they are signed in using our inventory screen.