Please click on the letters attached below to access correspondence sent to parents and carers.

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Important Attendance Letter below (the website should translate the letter below into your own language):

Dear Parent / Carers
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE EXPECTATIONS

Following advice from our Local Authority Attendance Team, we’re notifying parents of some attendance updates from September 2026. Ensuring that every child attends school regularly is essential for their academic progress, wellbeing, and future opportunities.

At Vaughan we have excellent attendance by the majority of pupils, and nearly all have between 96% and 100% attendance. However, we are sharing this information with all families so that they are aware of current attendance expectations at Vaughan. Please see below the average attendance per year group for last year:

Our average overall attendance last year was 95.8%. This compares with Harrow average overall attendance at 95.4%, London average is 94.8% and national average is 94.9%.

Whilst we can see we’re very strong on attendance, we want to be better, and here’s some things we’ll be doing from September to help increase our overall attendance.  

1. All routine GP/dental/optician appointments will not be authorised. These should be booked for during the 13 weeks of school holidays, or weekends (where available), or after school hours. Parent appointments should be made for during the school day when their child is at school. This is due to the large number of lost learning time that children are experiencing.
2. Taking holidays or other absences during term time is strongly discouraged and will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. We kindly ask that all parents and carers carefully consider the impact that any absence may have on their child’s education before making plans. Please note that where a family has more than one parent, we would expect only one parent to travel, while the other stays in the UK and brings their child(ren) to school. A leave request form should be completed to request leave with the Headteacher at least 2 weeks before the first day of absence. Please note that if you put in a request for absence next year, we are not likely to authorise any days.

If a child is absent and on antibiotics, we would expect them to return to school after 24 hours of taking the antibiotics so that parents can monitor for any adverse reaction to the antibiotics. The school’s welfare team can administer any midday antibiotic dose. Please complete a medication form at the school office when dropping medication to school at the beginning of the day.

Where a child is absent for five or more school days without authorisation, a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) will be issued. This is currently set at £160 per parent, per child, although this is reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days. For families with more than one child, it is important to be aware that fines are issued for each child, which can result in significant overall costs (see image below).

If further unauthorised absences occur within a three-year period, a second penalty notice may be issued at a higher cost, with no option for early payment reduction. A third instance may lead to legal action, where fines can be considerably higher.

In addition, where a child’s attendance becomes irregular, for example where there are 10 or more unauthorised sessions (5 school days) of absence within a 10-week period, a FPN will be issued.

Regular attendance is one of the most important factors in a child’s success. Even a small number of missed days can have a noticeable impact on learning, confidence, and social development. We therefore ask for your continued support in ensuring that your child attends school every day and arrives on time.

If you are experiencing any difficulties that may affect your child’s attendance, please do contact the school as soon as possible. We are here to work with you and support both you and your child. As stated above, most students have excellent attendance, thank you for your continued cooperation and commitment to your child’s education. This letter is available to view on our website here (this will be translated on the website into your language if English is not your first language)

Yours sincerely

MRS KATY HINSON
Assistant Headteacher with Responsibility for Inclusion