Get in touch
To report an absence, please email our attendance inbox at attendance@thekingstonacademy.org. You can also attach any relevant documents.
At The Kingston Academy we expect our pupils to have high levels of attendance and to arrive at school on time. We recognise that sometimes, pupils may be too unwell to attend; in such circumstances we ask you to send an email to attendance@thekingstonacademy.org before 8.30am and on each subsequent day until they return. If a pupil is absent but we have not heard from a parent/carer, our Attendance Officer will get in contact by phone, text or email. If we do not receive a response, the absence will be marked as unauthorised and we may seek advice from the Education Welfare Officer from the local authority.
If you need to request a pupil's absence from school you must complete an Absence Request Form in advance. This is required for all absences other than medical/dental appointments. You can access the form using this link.
For Sixth Form absences please email sixthform@thekingstonacademy.org
Pupils must arrive to school by 8.27am; tutor time begins at 8.30am which is when we expect our pupils to be in their form rooms ready to start their school day.
The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Amendment Regulations 2013 states that head teachers must not grant any leave of absence during term time unless:
If leave is granted, the head teacher must determine the number of school days a pupil can be away from school.
Permission for absence can only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
Family holidays are not exceptional circumstances. All requests for absence related to holidays during term time will be refused and will be recorded as an unauthorised absence on your child’s attendance record.
If you consider there to be exceptional circumstances, a request should be made using this google form. You should set out as much information as possible to explain why you feel there are exceptional circumstances which make it necessary for your child to be absent from school.
To provide enough time for the application to be considered and responded to, you must request leave for exceptional circumstances at least 3 school days in advance and ideally as far in advance as possible.
A decision will be made within 48 hours and recorded on the Form, which will be returned to you by post (a copy will be retained on your child's file). Where an email address has been provided a scanned copy will be sent to you by email in place of a postal response.
A request for your child to leave school early represents an absence from school and is therefore treated in the same way and follows the same procedures as for a leave of absence (see above).
Any leave of absence that is not authorised in advance may result in a Penalty Notice being issued by the Royal Borough of Kingston to each parent/carer. The Penalty Notice carries a fine of up to £60 per child, rising to £120 if not paid within 21 days (if the fine is not paid after 28 days parents/carers may be prosecuted).