Important
Please ensure your child arrives promptly for Registration, which starts at 8.45 am
Reporting Your Child's Absence
If your child is absent please either phone the absence line above giving name, tutor group and the reason for the absence and when you expect them to return to school.
If your child is absent and we have not heard anything from you, we will try to contact you by text message or telephone. In all cases Moorside will determine whether to authorise an absence. It is also important to inform us of any personal issues or changes of circumstance that might affect your child’s attendance.
Medical/Dental Appointments
Medical or Dental appointments, where possible, should be made out of school hours.
If an appointment can only be arranged during the school day, parents are asked to provide their child with a letter, which should be taken to Reception. Your child will then be given an appointment slip to show to their teacher when they need to leave class. Your child must sign out of school (and back in if they return the same day) via Reception.
Holiday Absences
The Department for Education has announced important changes to legislation surrounding holidays in term time.
References to ‘family holiday’ and ‘extended leave’ have now been removed from DFE guidance. These new amendments make it clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. The guidance allows no entitlement to parents to take their child on holiday during term time.
To illustrate the impact of taking holidays during term time, it was noted in the DFE’s recent review that, if a child is taken for a two week holiday every year and has the average number of days off for sickness/appointments, then during their school career they will have missed the equivalent of a whole year of school.
Up until this point, Moorside High School has always considered applications for leave of absence sympathetically, and authorised term time absence, providing certain criteria was met. This can no longer be the case.
If, despite these changes in law, you wish to take leave during term time, we would appreciate it if you would complete a ‘Notification for a Leave of Absence’ form. This will allow us to identify the cause for your child’s absence, ensuring that our safeguarding procedures are kept to. If you wish to apply for authorised leave under “exceptional circumstances”, you should write to the Headteacher directly.
It is important to point out that, in an attempt to address poor attendance and unauthorised absences, the Local Authority may decide to issue a fixed penalty fine and/or prosecute parents under the Education Act 1996 if a holiday is taken during term time.