A secondary school has defended introducing a policy of conducting 'unannounced home visits' along with police officers when students are absent.

Mossley Hollins High School in Tameside has told pupils and parents in its latest weekly newsletter that during each term there will be ‘specific days of action’ when members of Greater Manchester Police are to join visits to check whether absences are ‘justified’.

It added that parents shouldn’t worry if their child was not in school due to having a ‘genuine illness’.

However in a statement, executive headteacher Drew Duncan said he was sure ‘all parents and carers would agree that this would be the right course of action’.

He added that attendance home visits were carried out by every school, in line with guidance from Tameside council.

The letter, published on March 10, stated: “If your child is absent from school, we have a duty to ascertain the reason for absence at the earliest convenience and to determine whether the absence is justified or whether further evidence is required such as medical reports.

“Each half term we will be identifying days of action where unannounced home visits will be carried out. If your child is absent from school on any of these dates, you may well receive a visit, even if your child has only been absent for that day.

“We are also working very closely with the local police to help them build ever-stronger partnerships with the local community and to improve relationships with young people and families. The police will also be supporting the school in carrying out home visits for students who are absent from school.

“During each term there will be specific days of action where some of our local police will be joining our attendance team in making home visits.

“Please do not worry if your child is absent for a genuine illness. This is just another part of our work in ensuring that our attendance continues to be very strong and children get the education to which they are fully entitled.

The Huddersfield Road school was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in when it was last inspected by the watchdog in 2014.

Mr Duncan said: “Whilst we are delighted to report that the attendance figures at Mossley Hollins High School are significantly above the national figures for this year and last year, we still have fewer students attending school than we did before the pandemic and we are worried for them.

“Every winter there is illness absence and we always support families over illness absence.

“The school always only takes action on student absence on an individual basis, considering all the issues separately and carefully in each particular case and, at all times, supporting the child to be in school.

“We are working with our local PCSOs on our local authority ‘days of action’ as they have strong links with school and our families in the local area.

“A child who is absent from school but not ill is a safeguarding issue and we would not be doing our job if we ignored that.

“Our attendance team has already been highly successful in monitoring, expecting, listening, understanding and formalising support for the small number of parents who are genuinely struggling to get their child back into school.

“We have had major successes and real gratitude from those mothers and fathers. But we also have a duty to ‘expect’ and ‘enforce’ when a child is not ill but is not attending.”

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