Our school holiday dates are listed in the document below:
Please visit the Durham County Council website to view or download the school holidays dates for this academic year and next year for all community schools, special schools and voluntary controlled schools. Please note that voluntary aided (church) schools, foundation schools and academies may have set different dates and you should check with the school or academy to confirm their arrangements or view the PDF for schools not following the standard term and holiday dates.
Attendance
Good attendance is vital if children are to make good progress with their learning. It is therefore very important to ensure that all unnecessary absences are eliminated. Parents are requested to inform school on the first day of a child’s absence. Failure to do this by 9.05am will result in a follow-up text message/telephone call by school. This procedure ensures that we know the whereabouts of all the children in our care. The children’s safety is our primary concern and we hope parents will co-operate with this request.
Holidays in Term Time
All pupils registered at school are expected to attend every day the school is open. Parents are advised to book leave during school holiday periods.
Requests for leave of absence
Parents must request permission in advance from school for leave of absence for any reason, including holidays.
Headteachers cannot grant leave during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances and cannot grant permission retrospectively.
Generally, a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation would not be an exceptional circumstance.
An absence request form must be completed for any proposed absence during term time (including family holidays).
Changes to Fixed Penalty Notices from August 2024
In the majority of cases, schools and councils will try and provide support to help you improve your child’s attendance first, but if this is not working to resolve the issues or if support is not appropriate (unauthorised term time holiday), parents and carers may be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice.
Under the new national framework, Fixed Penalty Notices will be considered when a child has missed ten or more sessions (five days) for unauthorised reasons in a period of ten school weeks. A notice may also be issued where the five day level of absence has not been reached, for example, if there are several periods of leave.
Notices will be issued in line with the Local Code of Conduct – Penalty Notices for Irregular School Attendance – Local Code of Conduct (PDF, 306 KB).
From August 2024:
- The first penalty notice is £160 if paid within 28 days, reduced to or £80 if paid within 21 days.
- If a parent receives a second notice for the same child within any three year period, the amount of the notice will be £160 to be paid within 28 days.
- A third penalty notice cannot be issued. Legal action may result (for example, prosecution).
Fixed Penalty Notice information for parents and carers (PDF, 133 KB)
Medical issues and first aid
We do appreciate the difficulty of arranging medical and dental appointments, but, if at all possible, please arrange non-urgent appointments outside of school times. In cases where children have an important medical or dental appointment during school hours parents must inform school. If children have to leave school during normal school hours then an adult must come to collect them and sign them out. Children will not be permitted to leave school unaccompanied.
Minor injuries will be dealt with in school by a member of staff who is first aid trained. In cases of more serious injury or illness parents will be contacted immediately.
Parents are asked to complete a school medicine consent form if their child needs prescribed medicine during the school day. We are not able to administer non-prescribed medicines.
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