Attendance Procedures
This is a successful
college and your child plays their part in making
it so. We aim for an environment which enables and
encourages all members of the community to reach out
for excellence. For our students to gain the greatest
benefit from their education it is vital that they
attend regularly and your child should be at college,
on time, every day the college is open unless the
reason for the absence is unavoidable.
Why
Regular Attendance is so important:
Any absence affects
the pattern of a child’s schooling and regular
absence will seriously affect their learning. Any
student’s absence disrupts teaching routines
so may affect the learning of others in the same class.
Ensuring your
child’s regular attendance at school is your
legal responsibility and permitting absence from college
without a good reason creates an offence in law and
may result in prosecution.
Promoting
Regular Attendance:
Helping to create
a pattern of regular attendance is everybody’s
responsibility – parents, students and all members
of college staff.
To help us all
to focus on this we will:
- Give you
details on attendance in our regular Home-College
Newsletter
- Report to
you at least termly on how your child is performing
in college, what their attendance and punctuality
rate is and how this relates to their attainments
- Celebrate
good attendance by displaying individual and class
achievements
- Reward good
or improving attendance through form/year competitions,
attendance prize draw and certificates.
- Display all
attendance on the college website.
- Allow access
to your child’s attendance online via the
parent gateway.
- Run focus
groups with students to show the college where improvements
can be made.
Understanding
types of absence:
Every half-day
absence from college has to be classified by the college
(not by the parents), as either AUTHORISED
or UNAUTHORISED. This is why information
about the cause of any absence is always required,
preferably in writing.
Authorised absences
are mornings or afternoons away from college for a
good reason like illness, medical or family emergencies.
Planned medical/dental appointments which should be
organised outside of college hours.
Unauthorised
absences are those which the college does not consider
reasonable and for which no “leave” has
been given. This type of absence can lead to the Authority
using sanctions and/or legal proceedings. This includes:
- Parents/carers
keeping children off school unnecessarily
- Truancy before
or during the school day
- Absences
which have never been properly explained
- Shopping,
looking after other children or birthdays
- Day trips
and holidays in term time which have not been agreed
Whilst any child
may be off college because they are ill, sometimes
they can be reluctant to attend college. Any problems
with irregular attendance must be sorted out between
the college, the parents and the child. If your child
is reluctant to attend for any reason, please inform
us immediately, so that we can put the necessary support
in place.
Persistent
Absenteeism (PA):
A student becomes
a ‘persistent absentee’ (PA) when they
miss 20% or more schooling across the school year
for whatever reason. Absence at this level is doing
considerable damage to any child’s educational
prospects. It is a parent/ carers’ responsibility
to ensure that every measure is taken to immediately
improve their child’s attendance.
We monitor all
absence thoroughly. Any case that is seen to have
reached the PA mark or is at risk of moving towards
that mark is given priority and you will be informed
of this immediately. You may be asked to an Early
Intervention meeting and targets for improvement will
be agreed.
PA students are
tracked and monitored carefully through our pastoral
system and we also combine this with academic mentoring
where absence affects attainment.
The college will
issue a series of three letters if your child’s
attendance falls below 90%. The third letter will
invite you to a meeting to explain your child’s
absence. If no improvement is seen, the matter will
be referred to the Education Welfare Officer.
All our PA students will receive additional support
through : a Pastoral Mentor or a Connexions worker;
use of circle time; individual incentive programmes
and participation in group activities around raising
attendance. All PA cases are also automatically made
known to the Education Welfare Officer.
Absence
Procedures:
If your child
is absent you must:
- Contact us
by 8.30 am on the first day of absence
- Send a note
in on the first day they return with an explanation
of the absence – you must do this even if
you have already telephoned us
- Or, you can
call into college and report to Reception, who will
arrange for a member of staff to speak with you.
If
your child is absent we may:
- Telephone
or text you on the first day of absence if we have
not heard from you
- Invite you
in to discuss the situation with our Attendance
Officer and/or Achievement Co-ordinator (ACO), Assistant
Headteacher
- Refer the
matter to the Pupil Attendance & Education Welfare
Officer
(EWO).
Telephone
numbers:
There are times
when we need to contact parents about lots of things,
including absence, so we need to have your contact
numbers at all times. So help us to help you and your
child by making sure we always have an up to date
number – if we don’t then something important
may be missed. There will be regular checks on telephone
numbers throughout the year.
The
Education Welfare Officer:
Parents are expected
to contact college at an early stage and to work with
the staff in resolving any problems together. This
is nearly always successful. If difficulties cannot
be sorted out in this way, the college may refer the
child to the Attendance & Education Welfare Officer
from the Local Authority. The EWO will also try to
resolve the situation by agreement but, if other ways
of trying to improve the child’s attendance
have failed and unauthorised absences persist, these
Officers can use sanctions such as Penalty Notices
or prosecutions in the Magistrates Court.
Alternatively,
parents or children may wish to contact the EWO themselves
to ask for help or information. They are independent
of the college and will give impartial advice. Their
telephone number is available from the college office
or by contacting the Local Education Authority.
Lateness:
Poor punctuality
is not acceptable. If your child misses the start
of the day they can miss work and do not spend time
with their form tutor getting vital information and
news for the day. Late arriving students also disrupt
the learning of others.
How
we manage lateness:
The college day
starts at 8.30 am and we expect your child to be in
registration at that time.
Registers are
marked by 8.50 am and your child will receive a late
mark if they are not in by that time.
At 9.00 am the
registers will be closed. In accordance with the Regulations,
if your child arrives after that time they will receive
a mark that shows them to be on site, but this will
not count as a present mark and it will mean they
have an unauthorised absence. This may mean that you
could face the possibility of a Penalty Notice if
the problem persists.
If your child
has a persistent late record you will be asked to
meet with the Assistant Headteacher and/or Attendance
Officer to resolve the problem, but you can approach
us at any time if you are having problems getting
your child to college on time.
Holidays
in term time:
Taking holidays
in term time will affect your child’s schooling
as much as any other absence and we expect parents/carers
to help us by not taking children away in college
time.
Remember that
any savings you think you may make by taking holiday
in college time are offset by the cost to your child’s
education.
There is no automatic
entitlement in law to time off during term time to
go on holiday.
All applications
for leave must be made in advance by letter to the
Headteacher.
The Headteacher will only authorise holidays taken
in term time under very exceptional circumstances.
In the vast majority of cases, the applications for
authorisation are not granted. If you do take an unauthorised
holiday, you will receive a Penalty Notice.
If your child
is taken away from the country for more than three
weeks, they may be removed from the College Roll.
You would then have to reapply for a school place
through the Local Authority on your return.
College
targets, projects and special initiatives:
The college has
targets to improve attendance and your child has an
important part to play in meeting these targets.
Targets for the
college and for classes are displayed in the college
and on the website.
The minimum level
of attendance for this school is 93% attendance and
we will keep you updated regularly about progress
to this level and how your child’s attendance
compares.
Our target is
to achieve at least 95% because we know that good
attendance is the key to successful schooling.
We monitor absences
and punctuality on a weekly basis to show us where
improvements need to be made.
Those
people responsible for attendance matters in this
college are:
- Attendance
Officer
- Pastoral
Mentor
- Form Tutor
- Assistant
Headteacher
- Year Achievement
Co-ordinator
Summary:
The College has
a legal duty to publish its absence figures to parents
and to promote attendance. Equally, parents have a
duty to make sure that their children attend. All
college staff are committed to working with parents
and students as the best way to ensure as high a level
of attendance and achievement.
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Attendance Procedures
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