Parents/Carers should contact school as soon as they know their child will be absent that day. 

Contact should be made by 9am.

01946 830526

School has an answer phone so messages can be left.

Distington Community School

First-Day Contacting Procedure

(School’s safeguarding response to children missing education)

Where a child is absent from school and we have not received any verbal or written communication from the parent/carer then we initiate a first day contact procedure.

• The School Administrator will check all of the registers from 8.55am to 9.05am on a daily basis, to identify pupils who are absent.

• If no contact has been made to inform the school of the reason for absence, then admin will ring the primary contact number on record. If there is no response, then a text/voicemail will be sent to the primary number asking for the parent/carer to contact school immediately

• Admin will continue to go through the emergency contact list in order to get the support of other family members in contacting the parent/carer.

• If no contact has been made by 9.30am, two members of staff, will then attend the home address to establish that the child/family is safe. The Headteacher/SLT must be informed.

• If no contact can be made, then the police will be informed and the child will be reported as missing.

The decision to visit a child’s home must always be discussed/agreed beforehand with the head or a member of the SLT. On occasion, it may be necessary to contact the police instead of visiting the home due to staff safety.

Please note: The process is the same for the collection of children at 3.15pm (Nursery-11.45am). If the child is not collected and no contact is made by 3.45pm (Nursery 12.15pm) then two members of staff will visit the child’s address. If we still have no contact police will be informed.