Every school day matters

Every lesson counts

Parents have a legal obligation to ensure their child receives their entitlement to their education. This is fulfilled by parents ensuring their child comes to school every day.

Reporting Absence

If your child is too ill to attend school, please contact our Attendance Officer, Mrs Vara, on 01753 544474 to leave a message. This should include:

• Your child's name
• Your child's class
• A brief description of the reason for the absence. 

Alternatively, please email jvara@ryvers.slough.sch.uk. Contact should be made before 9.00am.

Absences due to illness, for which we receive an explanation, are given an authorisation in the registers. Absences for which we receive no explanation remain unauthorised absences in the registers.

High levels of unauthorised absence, regular days off, or periods of absence will be investigated by our Attendance Officer. Parents may be requested to come for an Attendance meeting, to discuss seriously high levels of absence. They may be at risk of prosecution for failing to bring their child to school regularly which may result in being fined by the local authority.

Leave of Absence during Term Time

Parents occasionally request the Head of School, Mrs Price, to authorise absences for family holidays. In line with Local and National Government guidance and due to unacceptably high levels of pupil absence in recent school years, the Governors and Executive Headteacher/Head of School at Ryvers School have instructed that no holiday absence is authorised.

School is closed for a sufficient amount of time each year for families to make arrangements to take holidays that do not impact upon their children’s education. Parents who take unauthorised leave of absence may be subject to a fine issued by the local authority.

For further information please refer to our Attendance and Absence Policy and some further information about common childhood illnesses.

Punctuality

The school gates will open at 8.35am for a ‘soft start’. Your child should be in school by 8:50am for the start of the school day. The school gates will close at 8:50am and if you arrive after this time, you must enter the school via the school office. 

Remember that persistent lateness can be legally counted as unauthorised absence.

Persistent lateness can:

• Cause embarrassment to the child.
• Make it harder for the child to settle.
• Cause disruption to the rest of the class.