Having a good education will help to give your son or daughter the best possible start in life. Regular attendance at school is an important way of ensuring they get the high quality education they deserve. For children who attend Stephen Hawking School, becoming familiar with consistent routines is essential to their learning. This can only be achieved if your son or daughter attends school every day.

Stephen Hawking School monitors children’s attendance very carefully to ensure that children receive their full entitlement to school. To support your son or daughter you should: 

• contact the school if your son or daughter is unwell;
• tell the school why your son or daughter is absent;
• ask for permission in advance, giving the school plenty of notice and full details, if you want your son or daughter to attend a special event such as a family wedding;
• not expect the school to agree to shopping trips etc. during school hours.

Appointments

The school acknowledges the demands and requirements placed upon children and their families to attend a wide range of appointments. We aim to support families by minimising the impact these appointments have on the child, the family and the school.

At school we will:

• provide facilities to hold as many clinics on site as possible;
• work with health and social service professionals to group children for clinic appointments;
• with the agreement of parents/carers negotiate changes to dates and times;
• negotiate changes to home school transport;

No transport is provided, by the school, for appointments

If your son or daughter is absent from school for an appointment then the school will need to be provided with a copy of the appointment card in order to authorise the absence.

Family holidays

Stephen Hawking School follows the advice of Tower Hamlets and the Government by not agreeing to children being absent from school during term time. In exceptional circumstances, however, an application for leave can be made to the Head Teacher. Evidence for the exceptional circumstances may be required. The Headteacher will not agree to more than 10 days leave in any key stage.

Pupils who miss the school bus

It is the responsibility of the parents/carers to ensure that their child gets to school everyday, either by school bus or some other means. If a pupil misses the bus the school will do everything it can to support the parents/carers and child to ensure that they do not miss a day’s education.

The school will arrange, via the bus company, temporary variations to the pick-up and drop-off times. This has to be with the agreement of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets transport service.