Regular attendance is essential to progress in all years. A child cannot learn if they are not in school. Frequent absence disrupts continuity in learning. Please ensure your child attends regularly. Students are expected to catch up work missed due to absence on their return to school.
When students are absent because of illness, they can become anxious about falling behind with work. It is rarely appropriate for teachers to set work during short periods of absence (less than one week). If the absence is a prolonged one, it may be possible to set work to be completed at home. In these circumstances, we ask a parent to arrange to visit the school to receive instructions regarding how the work is to be completed and to return the completed work for marking, before further work is set.
When the school becomes concerned that the child’s education is being affected by regular absence, the school’s Education Welfare Officer (EWO) may be informed. The EWO may visit the home or send a warning letter. If this happens, an appointment will be made for you to meet the Curriculum Learning Tutor.
The vast majority of our students attend school regularly and are only absent for genuine reasons.
- Please contact us on the first day, and each successive day, of absence; a telephone call is fine; otherwise, we will have to contact you.
- All absences must be covered by a letter when your child returns to school. If no letter is received, the absence is unauthorised (truancy).
Please remember:
- Only the school can authorise absence. If in doubt, contact the tutor.
- The law states that parents do not have the right to take their child out of school for holidays during term time. The Headteacher is not able to authorise holidays in term time, other than in exceptional circumstances. These exceptional circumstances are prescribed by the Department for Education. The Headteacher has very little discretionary power. Please note that taking an unauthorised holiday could result in each parent receiving a Fixed Penalty Notice costing up to £100 for each child.
- Medical/Dental appointments should be arranged out of school hours, if possible.
- If you do need to collect your child from school for any reason, please ensure they have a note with them stating what time they are being collected from school and the date. Your child should then get the note signed by their tutor and should excuse themselves from the lesson(s) they will miss. At the appropriate time, the child will need to go to Reception to show their note and sign out.
We encourage attendance in a number of ways:
- Recognise and acknowledge good attendance by awarding certificates to students who achieve 100% attendance.
- Aim at an overall minimum attendance figure of 96% for the whole school throughout the year.
- Inform parents when their child falls below 95% attendance, and monitor attendance which causes concern by checking on absence on the first day.
- Inform the EWO if attendance falls below 95%. These students will be put on an attendance checking programme.
- Inform the EWO if we have not received a letter to explain an absence within one week of the child returning to school.
- Check carefully the number of days requested for leave of absence. Leave of Absence forms must be completed BEFORE the absence and approval gained.
- Where attendance falls consistently below 92%, parents may be called to an Attendance Panel Meeting.