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Attendance matters and through good attendance students can maximise their full potential.
Missing school means missing out on learning, development, opportunity and attainment.
Links Academy will always try to work with students and their families to support attendance and/or improve punctuality.
Hatfield Students
To report any student absence or lateness telephone
01707 346170
Parents/carers must notify the Links Academy of any absence of a student by 9.30 am on the first day of absence and subsequent days.
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Hixberry/Woollam/Cedars Students
To report any student absence or lateness telephone
01727 836150
Parents/carers must notify the Links Academy of any absence of a student by 9.30 am on the first day of absence and subsequent days.
It is preferable for all routine medical appointments are made outside of school hours, so that disruption and lost learning time are kept to a minimum for your child.
When this is not possible, please advise Links Academy in advance, providing evidence confirming the appointment, for school to authorise the absence.
Links Academy do recognise on occasion, in the event of an emergency, it is not always possible to book out of school hours appointments.
In these circumstances, please contact Links Academy to advise of the appointment and how long the student will be absent for.
Please call your child’s respective school on the main school number.
Medical evidence can be forwarded to:
Sometimes it can be tricky deciding whether to send your child to school if they are feeling unwell.
If uncertain, ask yourself:
Still not sure, please consult the NHS and Public Health guidelines at:
If you do keep your child at home, please call your child’s respective school on the main school number on the first day of absence and the reason for absence.
Heads of School may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. As a parent/carer you are strongly urged to avoid booking holidays during term time.
If your child is absent from school because of a holiday, this will be an unauthorised absence, referred to the Local Authority and may lead to a Penalty Notice.
By taking family holidays during the designated holiday periods, you will be supporting your child’s full school attendance, learning and development. There are 13 weeks of the year to take holidays out of term time.
If there are exceptional circumstances for the absence, this must be requested in advance and Links Academy will consider each application individually.
Parents/carers must notify the Links Academy of any absence of their child by 9.30 am on the first day of absence and on subsequent days.
If no contact has been made and your child has not arrived as expected, parents/carers will be telephoned to ascertain their child’s whereabouts. All student contacts will be telephoned in priority order, if there has been no response.
Should there be no contact with a child or parent/carer for a significant period, we exercise the right to liaise with the Police and ask that they undertake a welfare check and visit the family home to ensure a child’s safety.
If a student leaves the academy premises without permission, a member of staff will contact and speak to parents/carers, to inform them that their child is no longer on site. In these cases, if the staff member is unable to speak directly to a parent/carer, Links Academy has a duty of care to inform the Police that their child has absconded from school and is missing.
Attendance and punctuality are recorded and monitored daily, and parents/carers will have to account for unauthorised absences.
Links Academy are legally required to inform the Local Authority of any students who are regularly absent from school.
It is a parent/carers legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends Links Academy regularly and punctually according to their timetable. Should any student choose not to attend without any reasonable explanation, the matter will be followed up Links Academy.
Links Academy will work collaboratively with students and parents/carers to help address any in-school barriers a student may be experiencing affecting their attendance and punctuality. Where barriers are outside of school’s control, Links Academy will help direct students and parents/carers to additional external support networks.
If a student’s attendance does not improve significantly after this action, the student’s attendance will be referred to the Local Authority, who may decide to pursue legal action, under section 444 of the Education Act 1996.
The Department of Education (DfE) have introduced a new National Framework for Penalty Notices.
There will be a single consistent national threshold for when a Penalty Notice must be considered by all schools in England of 10 sessions (equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The 10-school week period can span different terms or school years.
First Offence
The first time a Penalty Notice is issued for a term time leave of absence or unauthorised absence the amount will be:
Second Offence
The second time a Penalty Notice is issued for unauthorised absence the amount will be:
Third and Any Further Offences (within 3 years)
The third time an offence is committed a Penalty Notice will not be issued and the case will be presented straight to the Magistrate’s Court.
Penalty Notices are administered by the Local Authority and they have the responsibility for their issue to parents/carers.
The Links Academy serves the needs of primary and secondary schools and their students in the St. Albans and Harpenden districts of Hertfordshire.
Travellers Lane
Hatfield, Herts
AL10 8TJ
1 Hixberry Lane
St Albans, Herts
AL4 0TZ
Woollam Crescent
AL3 6EJ
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