Attendance
At Gillingham School we are committed to supporting every student’s attendance. Good attendance is essential because it fosters an important sense of belonging and reinforces positive behaviour such as punctuality, which will help all our students in their adult lives. It will also benefit their academic progress and achievement.
As a school, we wholeheartedly believe in this ethos, and we aim to ensure we continue to offer a welcoming, nurturing, and supportive environment to enable all students to want to come to school to learn and enjoy success.
- We will therefore always take early action to prevent absence occurring and offer support to families when exploring absence from school to secure the child’s legal right to an education.
- We have a robust monitoring/analysis of data to identify trends and patterns of absence and will inform you of your child’s attendance percentage at the end of every half term as well as in monitoring communications and full reports.
More often than not, those students that make it to school feel better as the day progresses and enjoy being with their friends. Parents and carers should encourage their child to attend school.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty says a prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending school in the future.
Notification of unavoidable absences
- Daily absence should be reported via the EduLink App
- Request for absence should be completed using the online link, or requesting a form from the school office or contacting our Attendance Officer Lisa Hogg
Absences during term time will not be authorised unless highly exceptional circumstances can be clearly demonstrated.
- Supporting documentation must be submitted well in advance of the requested absence.
- Holidays taken during term time will not be authorised under any circumstances.
