Please do one of the following if your child is unable to attend school:
- Phone after 8.30am on the first day of absence on 01780 782743.
- Email the school bursar.
- Send a note to the school explaining your child’s absence.
Safety and Security
It is vitally important that you keep the school informed of your current contact telephone numbers, any change of address and also changes that may occur for any other person that you have nominated as an emergency contact. Please update your contact details here.
All parents and visitors should report to the school office on arrival and sign the visitor’s book.
Absence and Penalty Notices from August 2024
Penalty notices are issued to parents as an alternative to prosecution where they have failed to ensure that their child of compulsory school age regularly attends the school where they are registered or, in certain cases, at a place where alternative provision is provided. Penalty notices can be used by all schools (with the exception of independent schools) where the pupil’s absence has been recorded with one or more of the unauthorised codes and that absence(s) constitutes an offence. A penalty notice can be issued to each parent liable for the offence or offences. They should usually only be issued to the parent or parents who have allowed the absence (regardless of which parent has applied for a leave of absence).
The threshold for issuing penalty notices is 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. A school week means any week in which there is at least one school session. This can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence (e.g. 4 sessions of holiday taken in term time plus 6 sessions of arriving late after the register closes all within 10 school weeks). These sessions can be consecutive (e.g. 10 sessions of holiday in one week) or not (e.g. 6 sessions of unauthorised absence taken in 1 week and 1 per week for the next 4 weeks). The period of 10 school weeks can also span different terms or school years (e.g. 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the Summer Term and a further 8 within the Autumn Term).
From August 2024, an initial fixed penalty notice of £80 will be issued to each parent for each child.
|
When you pay |
Amount to pay (per parent, per child) |
|---|---|
|
Payment within 21 days |
£80 |
|
Payment within 22 days and 28 days |
£160 |
Penalty notice fines will now be issued to each parent for each child absent. For the first time offence, this would be £160 per parent per child if paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 per parent per child if paid within 21 days. The second time a penalty notice is issued, this will be £160 per parent, per child straight away. For third offences, fixed penalty fines will not be issued - the case will go straight to a Magistrates' Court and can be a fine of up to £2500 per parent, per child. Cases that are found guilty in Magistrates' Court can show up on parent’s future DBS checks.
Further information can be found at: Penalty notices for non-school attendance | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)