Attendance

Regular attendance at school is critical to ensuring that students achieve to their maximum potential. The school constantly monitor students’ attendance levels, and those who fall below the thresholds recommended below will be contacted in an effort to improve.

Please take note of the following important points:

• Attendance at school is required by law.
• Parents/carers are legally responsible for ensuring that students attend school on time every day during term time.
• 100% attendance is expected.
• Students are expected to attend school every day unless there is a genuine medical or other reason for absence.
• 95% attendance is considered satisfactory.
• Below 95% attendance will lead to an intervention and the Education Welfare Officer will be notified of the concern relating to attendance.
• Be on time every day.
• Students are expected to be in school by 8.25am each morning.
• Students who arrive after 8.45am must sign in at the Welfare Office before going to any lesson.
• All medical appointments – doctors/opticians/dentists or similar – should be made outside of the school day wherever possible.
• If students need to leave the school during the day for an appointment, they must show the Education Welfare & Attendance Manager a letter or appointment card to obtain a signing out slip. It is, however, expected that this will only be required in exceptional circumstances.
• If students are ill or unable to attend school, a parent/carer should inform the Education Welfare & Attendance Manager on the first day of absence.
• When students return to school, they must bring in a note from a parent/carer to explain their absence.

Holidays should not be taken during term time. Doing so without the permission of the Headteacher may mean your child loses his place at school.

All requests for term time leave should be made in writing to the Headteacher well in advance of any planned absence. These requests are not automatically guaranteed and any absence may be unauthorised.

Any persistent absence or unauthorised absence will lead to intervention from the local authority. Such intervention may include a fixed penalty fine, an appearance at the ‘Attendance Panel’, court proceedings, and prosecution.

At 80% attendance, it is likely that students will have been referred to the EWO service; they will have had targets to improve; they will have been to the attendance panel meeting at the Civic Centre; and parents/carers will be facing a fine, a court warning letter, a court appearance or a custodial sentence.

80% sounds high, but for attendance it is critically low.

• 80% over a week is missing 1 day a week.
• 80% over a year is missing 38 days of school.
• 80% over Years 7-11 is equal to missing a whole year of school.