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6th September 2024 Dear Parent Carers, Weekly Update: 06/09/24 We are delighted to welcome all students and staff back to St Martins School for the new academic year. We hope that you have all had a good summer and feel refreshed and ready for the year ahead. For those of you who are new to St Martins, we compile a ‘weekly update’ to share news, information and updates from across the school, Post-16 and Project SEARCH. We hope that you find them useful. Attendance Update and Leave of Absences As a school, we aspire for all students to have at least 95% attendance and we encourage students to be in school as much as possible to maximise their learning opportunities. We also understand that due to medical reasons, some students cannot be in school as much as they would like, and of course, this is accepted. Our Family Support Team are here to support you if you would like any help or advice on attendance. School receives a large number of applications for student leave of absence for events such as holidays every year. In 2013, the Department for Education announced that schools can no longer grant leave of absence during term-time unless there are explicit exceptional circumstances. As a school, we understand that going on holiday during busy times can be stressful for students with additional needs, and we are happy to support families to take students out of school where appropriate. The authorisation of leave of absence applications is at the Headteacher’s discretion, and as such, we will no longer authorise more than one leave of absence request for holiday per year where previously it has been deemed appropriate to approve. Parent Carers may still choose to take their young person out of school, but this would not be authorised. Parent Carers may also be issued with a Penalty Notice via the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer if their holiday is not authorised. To apply for a leave of absence, please collect a form from the school office. Whilst your form is being processed, you may receive a telephone call asking for further information. After the form has been processed, you will receive a letter confirming whether or not the application has been authorised. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss this further. Sabrina Hobbs Executive Headteacher St Martins School, The Derwent Campus, Bracknell Drive, Alvaston, Derby, DE24 0BT Tel: 01332 571151 Email: admin@stmartins.set.org Online: www.stmartinsschoolderby.co.uk The Shaw Education Trust Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England (no 09067175) Registered address: Shaw Education Trust, Kidsgrove Secondary School, Gloucester Road, Kidsgrove, ST7 4DL. The details of our academies registered as business names can be found at www.shaweducation.org.uk.