Attendance

The school believe that regular attendance at school is a critical element in students’ academic success. Once a student’s attendance drops below 95% (the equivalent of half a day’s absence a fortnight or 2 weeks in a year), their chances of achieving their academic potential falls significantly. Much of the curriculum is taught just once, if a student misses key lessons they have holes in their knowledge which they can find difficult to fill. This may cause them to fall further behind.

The school therefore takes a robust approach to monitoring and intervening with regards to attendance. Parents are overwhelmingly supportive of this stance.

Appointments

We ask that all appointments are made outside of the school day where possible, however we understand that sometimes this is beyond your control. If you need to inform us of any absence that requires your son/daughter to leave during the school day, please use the following procedure which will ensure that all staff who need to know are informed, in advance:

• email reception [at] imberhorne [dot] co [dot] uk stating your child’s name, tutor/year group, reason for appointment, time of leaving and approximate time of return (if applicable). 
• If it is not possible to email, please telephone reception on 01342 323562 Opt. 0
• Please do not email Heads of Year or Pastoral Teams as messages may be delayed in getting to the relevant staff.
• Students should always exit via either WL/IL main reception and ensure they sign out in the student signing in/out register.

Holiday Requests

Government legislation stipulates that: Applications for leave of absence (holiday requests) must be made in advance by a parent with whom the pupil normally resides; and that such leave will only be granted under exceptional circumstances. Our procedure for holiday requests is set out in the Headteacher letter below and the holiday request form below must be completed in every instance.

There is no longer any entitlement for parents to take their child on holiday during term time. The Headteacher is now charged with making decisions about whether any such request can be authorised by the school. Please see below our form which is to be submitted to the school in the first instance, requesting a full Holiday Application Form to be sent to you.

If a student has unauthorised absence from school this information must be shared with the West Sussex Education Welfare Service. The service have the power to fine parents for such unauthorised absence. Please follow the link below for 'Fixed Penalty Notices' to find our more about this.