Attendance 2025-2026

The importance of good attendance 

We place great importance on good attendance and punctuality here at Westwood and are extremely proud of the improvements we have seen in our attendance levels over the last few years. We know that a child's attendance has a direct impact on their learning. Those children who are regularly absent from school and regularly late do not achieve their full potential and do fall behind in class, therefore we celebrate good attendance in a wide variety of ways .

Notification of absence 

The school office should be notified if you child is ill or unable to attend due to a medical appointment or other unavoidable reason.

If your child is absent without notification, you will be contacted by telephone and asked to provide a reason for the absence.

If no contact is made, a member of our attendance team will visit the child's home.

Where possible medical appointments should be arranged outside of the school day to ensure children do not  miss valuable learning time. Where this is unavoidable, we expect children to be in school before the appointment and return to school after where this is appropriate. 

Holidays

Headteachers are not permitted to authorise holiday taken during term time. 

If you require leave of absence for your child during term time, an absence request form should be completed and handed in to the office to notify us that your child will be absent from school. In rare and exceptional circumstances the leave may be authorised., however in all other circumstances this period of absence will be marked as 'unauthorised holiday'. It is importance to be aware that 5 days of authorised absence can often be enough to trigger further action or in some circumstances a fixed penalty notice.