School Times and Holidays

In the morning children should be on the playground between 8.40 and 8.45am (prior to this, the children will not be supervised and are the responsibility of the parents), in readiness for the whistle to blow at 8.50am. Parents should make every effort to ensure that their children are punctual, a good habit to instil at an early age. Should a child be late repeatedly, then a letter will be sent home to encourage the parents to make greater effort to ensure their child is on time. (It is nearly always the fault of the parent when a child is late!). Should the child continue to be late, then the School's Educational Welfare Officer will be alerted and a home visit will be made.

23 hours and 45 minutes are spent on teaching during the normal school week. This time excludes registration, assembly and breaks.

Should your child be absent from school, due to an illness or doctor's appointment etc., please telephone the school office before 10.30am on the same day. All unreported absences have been requested to be passed to the Educational Welfare Department by 11am. Upon the child's return, a letter to the class teacher, stating the reason for absence, upon the child's return is also requested. By law, absences have to be reported to the DfEE annually as either "Authorised" or "Unauthorised".
Any absence that has not been followed-up by a letter, or phone-call, from the parent or guardian is automatically considered to be "Unauthorised" for this annual return.

The diary for each term shows the official holiday dates for the school year. Very occasionally parents have to take a holiday at a different time and they are legally entitled to make a special request of no more than two consecutive weeks in the school year. An absence request form, which is obtainable from the school office, must be filled in and returned to school at least two weeks before the intended absence.

It is hoped that any unavoidable extra time out of school will be kept to an absolute minimum, so that valuable lesson time is not lost.