Attendance

For any student to achieve their best and learn to their full potential it is essential that they have excellent attendance.

Full attendance (100%) is the standard expected. To support this, attendance figures are reported to parents/carers regularly with good attendance being recognised appropriately. Any instances of unauthorised, prolonged and/or repeated absence are followed up by the attendance team. Where concerns are identified we work quickly with families to address any issues and support the student in returning to school.

Guidance for parents where absence cannot be avoided

If you feel your son/daughter is unable to come to school, please telephone the academy (01502 574474 ext 177) as early as possible on the day and either ask for the attendance office or select the student absence option from the automated menu.

To safeguard students, please note that if we don’t hear from you and your son/daughter is absent, Truancy Call will automatically phone you.

Absence from school can only be authorised for the following reasons:

  • Illness.
  • Medical or dental appointments, where appointments outside of school time are not available.
  • Religious observance.
  • Bereavement of a member of the close family.
  • Annual family holiday, only authorised in exceptional circumstances.

The academy operates a standard penalty notice system, whereby the parents of any student absent from school for 6 sessions (3 days) are referred to the local authority for a penalty notice (this includes holidays during school time). Please contact the academy attendance officer for further details.

Attendance: what parents/carers need to know

Attendance and late procedure flow chart

Punctuality

Punctuality is an important part of self-discipline and is essential to good time management.

Students must be on site by 8.35am, in order to be in registration by 8.40am. Students who arrive late will be met at the academy entrance by the attendance officers who will sign them in and provide them with a reflection sheet to complete at break time. Students arriving very late, after 9.00am will be given a same-day community reflection at lunch time.

The academy also operates a standard penalty notice system, whereby the parents of a student who is very late six times in a single academic year is referred to the local authority for a penalty notice. Please contact the academy attendance officer for further details.

Signing out

If students must leave school during the day for any reason, they need a note from their parent/carer in advance of the date. Students must sign out at the attendance office where they will receive a ‘Pass out Slip’. They must sign in again when they return to school on the same day.

Under no circumstances may a student leave school or go home without permission. These absences will be recorded as unauthorised, with consequences issued in line with our behaviour and attendance policies.

The impact of absence

Every school day counts towards a student’s future. Time off school quickly becomes lost learning.

Department for Education figures show that:

  • Only 10% of persistent absentees achieve five good GCSEs, compared with 38% of occasional absentees, and 58% of regular attenders.
  • 21% of persistent absentees had no qualifications compared to 3% of regular attenders.
  • Absentees are more likely to offend and, of the group of young people offending, 2 out of 3 had been absent from school.