Tuesday 10th March 2026
Dear Parent/Carer
Appointments e.g. GP, Dentist, Optician
The school asks that appointments are scheduled outside of school hours as much as possible. On the occasion that your child has an appointment during school time, we ask that where suitable you bring them into school before their appointment and/or return them to school after their appointment. Please also inform the school office in advance with appropriate evidence.
Attendance
In our continued efforts to improve school attendance Ms D’Abreu will be meeting with the parents/carers of persistently absent children. Letters will be sent out to parents of those children in the coming weeks.
Lateness
As you are aware we open the school gates at 8:45am and the school day begins promptly at 8:55am. At which time, we expect all children to have settled into their classroom, ready to learn. When children arrive late to school, they miss essential instructions given at the beginning of the lesson. This can significantly reduce achievement, regardless of academic ability. Your child may also feel awkward arriving to class when everyone else is settled. We would therefore be grateful if you could support the school by arriving to school on time.
Term Time Leave
It is important that all holidays are booked outside of term time. At The Devonshire Hill Nursery and Primary School, we prioritise education and our Attendance Policy is clear. We cannot and will not authorise leave of absence for family holidays or any other reason unless there are exceptional circumstances or medical grounds. In such cases where there is an exceptional circumstance this must be supported with suitable evidence. Please support us in helping your child to attend school every day unless he/she really is too ill to attend. Good attendance is vital to your child’s progress and future life chances. We appreciate that some leave is unavoidable, but would ask you to carefully consider the impact of any absence on your child’s education and reconsider your plans where possible. As you may be aware Haringey Council operates a Penalty Notice Scheme for poor school attendance. More information can be found on the Haringey website.
Persistent late collection
The school understands and appreciates that from time to time, unavoidable delays may cause you to be a few minutes late to collect your child. However, in instances where this is a regular occurrence, we will require you to register with our on-site breakfast and after school club ‘To The Whistle’ in order that your child/ren can be placed into their care until collection (this must be before 5:15pm). On more than one occasion recently our staff have had to stay past their finish time to look after children whose parents have not made adequate arrangements for them to be collected.
Yours sincerely
Julie D’Abreu
Headteacher
