Absence from School

If your child is not at school for any reason, please call before 9am and let us know the reason for absence. A voicemail facility exists 0121 353 1876 Option 1 for parents to leave a message or you can call the office and ask to speak to Mrs Round (Pupil Administrator). This will ensure we comply with the Department for Education (DfE) regulations on registration and absences.

In your message, please leave specific details e.g. symptoms if unwell, when the symptoms started and any medical advice you have been given. If you leave a vague message, such as “cold symptoms”, someone from the office team will need to phone you back to obtain further details.

If your child is suffering from any of the following symptoms, your household must isolate and a PCR coronavirus (Covid-19) test should be booked for them.

The NHS website lists the main symptoms of COVID-19 as:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back or have a temperature over 37.8C
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

To book a test please follow this link https://self-referral.test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/antigen/condition or call 119 to speak to NHS track and trace.

If your child is isolating at home but well enough to do school work, the teachers have prepared home learning.

If your child has a positive Covid-19 test result, please phone the school as soon as possible to let us know and keep your child at home. 

If your child has suffered from sickness (vomiting) and or diarrhoea please see our Sickness and Diarrhoea Policy under the policy section of our website. Your child will not be allowed to return to school until 48 hours after the last episode of sickness or diarrhoea.

Punctuality

To ensure social distancing we currently have staggered start and finish times across the school depending on your child’s house group.

Oak 8.30am – 3.15pm

Maple 8.40am – 3.25pm

Beech 8.50am – 3.35pm

Please ensure that you arrive promptly at your allocated time in the morning and collect your child on time in the afternoon. Don’t be late! We need to avoid different groups of people mixing to protect our children, staff and families and to maintain the integrity of our pods.

Arriving late for school also gives your child an upsetting start to the day. Children thrive on routine, and do not like to stand out from their peers. Having to join the class when everybody else is settled and ready to learn can embarrass and worry many children. Just five minutes late will mean they may have missed the opportunity to share important news or messages with their teacher, who is trying to introduce the learning for the day. They will also miss the starter learning challenge, offered to the class while children arrive and the register is taken. A regular five minutes a day adds up to a whole three days lost learning per year. 

Any child that is not collected at dismissal time will be sent to Woodpeckers and late collection charges applied.  

Holidays in Term-time

In light of the prolonged school closure last year and the impact that this will have inevitably had on education, we will not be authorising any holiday requests at present. Requests for leave of absence from school during term will only be granted in very exceptional circumstances.

This is now a crucial time for the children to re-establish their friendship groups and take forward their learning after a period of significant disruption; a child away on holiday will find it harder to re-join groups that have been re-established which will inevitably cause distress and impact further on learning. 

We ask that all parents accommodate holidays or absence that can be planned for e.g. family occasions during the 13 weeks available in the year when the school is not in session and by so doing, support their children in maximising their learning in school time.

All term time leave requests must be made in advance and in writing to the Headteacher. Failure to do this may result in potential safeguarding concerns.  Please note this is also applicable to nursery aged children.

Full details of our attendance policy and attendance guidance for parents is available here: 

https://www.blackwood-school.co.uk/policies/

Full details of our attendance policy and attendance guidance for parents is available here: 

https://www.blackwood-school.co.uk/policies/