What to do if your child is ill.

Children develop illness. As a school we want to support you with managing your child's illness and getting the best advice.

• If your child is ill please either contact the school office by phone (0151 677 6262) or via  this form  to let us know that they will be absent from school.  It is important that this is done on the first day of your child's absence before 9am.  It would be helpful if you could estimate how long your child will be absent for or alternatively ring on the consecutive days of absence to update the school on your child's progress.
• In cases of infectious diseases, it is essential that we are informed.
• If your child has diarrhoea and sickness, he/she should not return to school for 48 hours after the last bout of illness. 
• If a child becomes ill during the day, his/her parents or carers will be contacted. Therefore, please let us know immediately if you (or named emergency contacts) change your address or telephone number.

We may also be able to give you advice on managing your child's illness and whether they should remain off school.

Information from the Government's Public Health guide for Infection is included in this section.  You can follow the link found at the bottom of the page if you wish to read further.

There is no need for children to stay off school if they have cold sores, conjunctivitis or slap cheek.  These are not highly contagious and would only be transmitted through inappropriate contact. However, each case will be dealt with on a individual basis and parents may be advised to keep their child  at home if there is a further risk of infection to others. 

We do stress to parents that these and other illnesses may present risks if you are pregnant, have a low immune system or are receiving medical treatment.  If this is the case for you or your child please seek further guidance from the Health Protection Agency, from our School Nurse or  from your GP.

Attendance and Punctuality

Every minute matters in school to ensure our children reach their potential. We are fully committed to ensuring that no child is disadvantaged by poor attendance or punctuality. At Our Lady of Pity, we are proud of our historic high attendance, with absence and persistent absence consistently being in the lowest 20% of all schools. 

Our final whole school attendance figure for 2022-23 was 95.9%. This is an improvement on our 2021-22 figure (95.4%)

Monitoring attendance and punctuality

Mrs Waters & Mrs Dunne monitor attendance daily. Text messages are sent, or phone calls are made to parent/carers if their child is absent through our first day response system. Every minute counts, and we don't wait for a child's attendance to drop below a certain level before we intervene. If attendance and punctuality is not meeting expectations parents will be offered support in improving this before a formal meeting is planned. If attendance and punctuality fail to improve the Education Welfare Service will be contacted and a formal meeting with the Head of School will be held. 

Holidays in term time

Parents and Carers MUST use the Application for Leave Form to apply for a term time absence (not for sickness).  The Head of School can only authorise absence in exceptional circumstances, such as a family wedding (2 days), graduation (1day) or funeral, or if a parent is in the armed forces. 

Failure to apply in advance for holiday leave for a child during term time can result in the local authority issuing an EPN (Education Penalty Notice). 

Parents must understand that taking your child out of school during term time affects your child's progress,attainment and friendships.