Attendance Information
Harrow High School expects good attendance. We celebrate and acknowledge classes which have excellent attendance. Please see the homepage for up to date information.
What the law says?
By law, all children of compulsory school age (between 5 and 16) must get a suitable, full-time education. As a parent or carer you are responsible for making sure this happens, by registering your child at a school.
Once your child is registered at a school you are responsible for making sure he or she attends regularly.
Children must attend school every day and it is your responsibility to make sure they do.
Attendance Mentor
Please contact Mrs. Hamlin on 020 8861 7303 if you have any concerns about your child's attendance.
For the full document follow this link - Attendance and the Law
Click here to view Trevor's Dilemma for facts about Truancy
Harrow High School is only responsible for children between the hours of 8.15am and 3.50pm Monday to Friday, term time, unless the children are at an organised school activity supervised by school staff. Outside of these hours, children are the responsibility of their parents. We ask that parents ensure their child arrives punctually at school but not before of the published hours.
Penalty Notices
Harrow Council has brought to the attention of every school in Harrow the powers in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 to tackle poor school attendance.
These came into force from the 27 February 2004 and include Penalty Notices, which mean that for learners with unauthorised absence from school (i.e. any absences for which the school has not given permission) their parent(s) or carer(s) may be subject to a fine of either £50 or £100 and failure to pay the penalty notice may result in prosecution.
Penalty Notices will be used as a deterrent to prevent a pattern of unauthorised absence developing. They will be issued simply by post to a learner’s home after possibly just one warning and cases of absence without acceptable cause will also include learners taken on excessive holidays in school term time and persistent late attendance after the School Attendance Register has closed.
At Harrow High School & Sports College we consider that regular attendance is so important and these new powers so significant, that we are now bringing this change in the law to the attention of every parent or carer with a child in this School.
It means that any parent or carer of a learner with a level of unauthorised absence may now have a potential liability in the form of a Penalty Notice issued by the Council. If you believe at any stage that your child’s absence record from school may leave you liable to receive a Penalty Notice it is extremely important that you take action without delay to secure their regular attendance.
Support and guidance on attendance is always available and if you have any questions about this or if you need any help to achieve an improvement then please contact us to discuss the situation.
Advice and support can also be made available to you through the Education Welfare Service by contacting the Service at:
Children’s Services
429 – 433 Pinner Road,
North Harrow,
Middlesex
HA1 4HN
Telephone: 020-8863-5544 or Fax 020-8861-1816
