Dear Parents/Carers
Strike Days
This Thursday the 27th April, Teachers within the NEU union will potentially be going on strike. There is also a further strike day planned by the same union for Tuesday 2nd May.
There is the prospect of further strike days being announced in the future, which may be supported by even more of the teaching unions.
In order to ensure we have sufficient staffing on these days we have decided to close certain classes on each day. This is based on losing a number of Teachers and some TA’s who will be required to stay off to look after their own children. Similar to last time we will close approximately a quarter of the school on each strike day so as to reduce the impact on our students and families.
The following classes will be closed on the following dates:
Thursday 27th April – Highcliffe, Carlton, Sutton, Wainstones, Roseberry
Tuesday 2nd May – Jet, Amber, Ruby, Diamond, Pearl
I apologise for the impact of these strike days on you and your families.
Leave of Absence
As a school, we have a real dilemma around authorising holiday requests during term time. We want to support our families to take holidays at times that are quieter and more predictable. However, as a school we are externally accountable for our authorised absences and questioned as to why we allow so many holidays in term time. We currently do not have an agreed policy in place for student leave of absence and for that reason I have, with mitigating circumstance, been authorising student’s leave of absence. This will continue until the end of this academic year. However, in September we will be introducing a new policy around student leave of absence. School will grant authorisation for families to take their child out of school for up to one week (five school days) each academic year, providing that the child’s attendance in school is greater than 90%. (As a school we will look at individual circumstances in terms of the 90% attendance for example if a child has a lot of health needs this will not be held against an individual). If a child’s attendance is lower than 90%, without specific health needs, or the request is over and above the five day limit then only five days will be authorised in total.
Cont’d……
Please be aware that this does not mean that we will start chasing or harassing parents who choose to take a holiday in term time, instead it is to justify to external scrutiny that we are valuing school and children being in school and that we are trying to take steps to improve attendance. I hope that you can understand the need to have some guidelines around student holidays in term time and can appreciate the balance we are trying to strike between supporting our families and also promoting good school attendance.
Thank you for your continued support
Yours sincerely
Paul McLean
Headteacher
Kirkleatham Hall School