FAQs
What happens if only one of my children is ill but it means I can’t bring the others to school?
The absences for those children who are not unwell is unauthorised. It will be recorded as code O. Code O will go towards a penalty notice (or court proceedings).
What happens if I am unwell, as a parent/carer, and I can’t bring my child/ren in to school?
The absences for those children who are not unwell is unauthorised. It will be recorded as code O. Code O will go towards a penalty notice (or court proceedings).
Only the school can authorise the absence
Parents and carers think that they can authorise their child’s absence, but this is not the case. Only the school has the authority to do this. If your child is away from school due to a lot of illness, then the school may decide not to authorise the absence. If our attendance staff believe that this is a possibility in the near future for your child, they will get in touch with you to let you know and warn you, that in order to have any future absences authorised due to illness, the school will require medical evidence.
What is medical evidence?
Medical evidence is something that you could easily get if your child has been unwell. It is NOT asking your GP for a letter, it is NOT asking you to tell us all the details of your child’s medical history. Here are some suggestions of what you can bring to us:
- An appointment card/slip that is from your surgery and the date on this matches a day your child was absent from school.
- A copy of the prescription that has been issued – it must be in the name of the child who is absent and also cover the date/s of absence.
- A record on your mobile telephone that you called your GP surgery to ask for advice. When you call, please ask for the name of the person that you spoke to. We will ask to see the number that you called, how long the phonecall was for and the name of the person you spoke to.
If the school has authorised the absence due to illness it will appear as code I on your child’s attendance record. Code I means ‘illness’.
If the school has not authorised the absence it will appear as a code O on your child’s attendance record. Code O means ‘reason provided for absence but the school has chosen not to authorise’.