We have had some enquiries recently regarding the best way to advise the school of an absence for your child from school. Notification of an absence is a requirement under the Education Act (1990). Parents and Carers are required to explain absences of their children from school within seven days of any period of absence. Here at Lambton Public School we have an automatic SMS reminder that is sent out the morning of an absence and we will also follow up with a written reminder to explain the absence a few days later.
We understand that on occasions it may slip your mind to advise, or technology may not cooperate! Please do not take these contacts as a rebuke from the school, it is the way we are able to communicate within our systems and assist you in explaining any absence for your child from school. Also bear in mind that all of these methods we suggest below need to be manually entered onto the class roll by staff, we endeavour to do this each morning before the scheduled SMS is sent. Using one of the preferred methods below assists us in doing this as quickly and efficiently as possible and also aids the school in the archiving of explanations long term.
1. The Audiri app is an easy way to lodge an absence for your child if they are going to be away from school. To do this open the Audiri app on your chosen device - hit the resources button in the bottom right-hand corner - select the FORMS tile from the top left-hand corner - select Absentee Form. The details in this form are sent to the school and are manually entered into the class roll by our administration team each morning.
2. Reply to the SMS sent each morning, ensure that you only use the text message sent that day for that student, this ensures it is matched to the correct day and student.
Here are some tips for using the SMS option
· In this message it is important that you give a reason for the absence, please refrain from just saying 'away' or 'yes' in this message, what you put in this message is recorded on the class roll.
· When replying to an SMS message on behalf of multiple students, it is helpful that you give the full names of the students in the reply as the messages are linked to each student not whole families.
· If you have forgotten to reply to the text on the day of the absence it is best to contact the school via the Audiri app.
· Please do not save this number and use it in the future for advising of absence as it does not align accurately in the system and may be lost.
Phone calls and emails to the school - are not our preferred methods of communication in the event of an absence, the Audiri app mentioned above is a more suitable form of communication or replying to the SMS. However, we are able to take explanations over the phone or via email if you have no other method of advising the school of the absence.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this information, please make contact with the school administration team. We sincerely thank the parent body for the care and concern you have for explaining any absences and we hope that this guide assists you in continuing this process.