At Chatsworth we are dedicated to providing every child with an extraordinary school day, every day. Consistent attendance is essential to ensuring that children make the most of their learning opportunities and fully engage in the safe, happy, and supportive learning environment we cultivate. By promoting regular attendance, we help children stay engaged, motivated, and ready to succeed in their education. Explore this page for important information on how to support your child’s attendance and ensure they experience the best of Chatsworth’s safe and happy learning community.

Lateness / Absence

Both of these are damaging to a child’s education and need to be avoided where at all possible. 

Registration and Punctuality

• All children should be through the gate and walk along the yellow brick road to their classroom during our soft start between 8.30 – 8.45am. Registration is taken twice a day at 8.50am and 1.00pm. A school day counts as 2 marks of attendance, children will attend for a total of 32.5 hours in a typical school week.
• Our soft start ends at 8.45am when the gate is locked. If a pupil arrives after this time they should be accompanied by the parent to the main reception and signed in on our Inventry system. Any pupil arriving after 8.50am will be marked as late. Any child arriving after 9.20 will become an unauthorised absence and marked as an absentee for the whole of the morning session.
• Please note the school day ends at 3.15pm, please be prompt when collecting your children from the school playground. 
• The school will follow up any regular or long-term absences and a meeting will be arranged with the Headteacher.

 

Illness and Medical Appointments

• Every effort should be made to arrange medical appointments outside of school hours. However we are aware that appointments during school time are sometimes unavoidable. If it is necessary for a child to be out of school for this reason, the child should be returned to school directly after the appointment.
• A copy of the appointment card or letter for the appointment should be shown/given to the school office to support the absence.
• If your child is unwell for 5 consecutive days or more medical evidence will be required to support the absence ie. copy of prescription or medication taken 
• Following an episode of vomiting or diarrhoea pupils are requested to remain away from school for a period of 48 hrs. This is in line with guidance from the Health Protection Agency for schools and childcare settings and helps to reduce the spread of infection between pupils.

 

Absence

An unauthorised absence is where there has been no communication by the parent/ carer as to why the child is absent or there is not a legitimate reason to miss school.

• Parents/carers are requested to telephone on the first day of absence before 9.20am or as early as possible.  Call the school on 020 8300 9295. Parents are requested to ring each and every day of the absence. This information is required as part of our safeguarding procedure and our responsibility to ensuring the safety of the children. 
• The schools attendance officer will endeavour to contact the parent/carer if no message has been received regarding the reason for the pupil absence. 

Holidays

Leave during term time for a child to accompany parents on holiday can seriously disrupt a pupil’s continuity of learning. Requests for leave of absence will not be authorised by the Headteacher and, on the advice of the Educational Welfare Officer may be subject to a penalty notice of £80 per parent, per pupil. Parents should complete the  Request for Absence from Learning google form below and you will receive a response as soon as possible. 

 

Absence reporting Google form

Request for Absence from Learning Google form

 

Year group	Attendance %	Authorised absence %	Unauthorised attendance %	Persistent absence %
Data accurate as of July 2026 (half-termly update)
Reception	98.6%	1.1%	0.3%	1.7%
Year 1	96.3%	2.9%	0.8%	1.7%
Year 2	96.6%	2.6%	0.8%	1.7%