Guidance for Non-attendance at School
What you can do to help your child
If you suspect your child may be missing school or is unhappy at school, you should contact the school as a matter or urgency to discuss the situation.
If your child is ill or absent for any other reason, contact the school on the first day of absence as early as possible but before 9:30am at the latest. You should also send a signed, dated note of explanation on your child's return to school. Contact the school if there are any circumstances which are likely to result in absence.
If your child makes an excuse to try to avoid going to school, listen to them. You may find there is an underlying problem.
Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you believe there is a difficulty.
What the Education Welfare Service can do to help you
The Education Welfare Service (EWS) will work with the school to monitor and audit the attendance of pupils each term. Any pupils with attendance under 90% will be discussed with the school.
If attendance remains of concern, despite intervention from the school, the Education Welfare Officer (EWO) will contact parents and work to try to resolve the situation. EWOs will work with the school, parents/carers and pupils to maintain and improve school attendance to avoid the need for legal action.
Further information and advice
If you require any further information, please contact your child's school or the Education Welfare Service in the first instance. You can contact the Education Welfare Service by telephone on 01202 261914 or via the webpage
Other sources of information include:
The Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) provides independent, practical and legal advice on schooling issues. You can view a number of advice booklets, including those on bullying and special educational needs. General and Exclusions telephone helplines are also available.
ChildLine is a free, confidential helpline for children.The telephone helpline number is 0800 1111
Family Lives provides a free, confidential helpline (including a textphone facility) for parents including leaflets, courses and workshops.
The Department for Education has information on all aspects of school attendance including links to relevant legislation.
The Parents section of Directgov offers information and advice on how you can help with your child's education.
