Attendance

Mr Donnison – Assistant Principal, Strategic Lead for Attendance

Alongside my role as Head of Small School Innovation, I have the overall responsibility for attendance. I meet with Mrs Williams on a weekly basis and report developments in attendance and current attendance data back to the Senior Leadership Team. I provide attendance reports for the Local Authority and the School Governors.

Mrs Williams – Attendance Officer

My role is quite varied but mainly involves working closely with those students who have lower attendance and need extra support and involving the parents where necessary. I work to develop initiatives to improve attendance, rewarding good and outstanding attendance, providing data and working closely with the Local Authority regarding non attendance and holidays.

Mrs Holmes – Attendance Assistant

My role as Attendance Assistant consists of being ‘first contact’ for those parents contacting the school for their child’s absences. On a daily basis I telephone parents and other named contacts of those students who are absent from school when we have no notification of the reason. I also run the ‘Keep Kids Safe’ messaging system which sends out automatic texts to the parents of absent students.

2010-2011 93.9%

2011-2012 93.7%

2012-2013 93.3%

2013-2014 94.2%

‘Persistent Absenteeism’ refers to those students who are absent from school for more the 15% of the time, which in turn means that their attendance is less than 85%. We work proactively to prevent students from falling into this category but on occasions this is unsuccessful. We have specific protocol in place when working with these students. This involves Pre Attendance Case Conference meetings with the student and their parents and setting clear targets over a period of time. The number of review periods is decided on a case by case basis and generally this approach is successful in leading the student out of the PA category. On the rare occasions that this is unsuccessful we progress the meetings to Attendance Case Conference and may work alongside the Local Authority to commence a prosecution process.

As outlined below it is clear to see the impact of the committed ‘PA’ intervention over the course of the last four years. Our Academy aim is to have less than 5% of students achieving below 85%. By the end of the Spring Term we had achieved that target.

2010-2011            15.1%

2011-2012            7.1%

2012-2013            5.6%

2013-2014             4.9%

Having recently revised the Academy target for attendance, we have also restructured the attendance categories. This is heavily promoted around the Academy so that the students are fully aware of which category they fall into and more importantly what they should be aiming towards. The Attendance category poster is uploaded below.

We make it a high priority to reward those students who have sustained excellent attendance or made real improvements to their attendance. Some of the examples of current rewards are outlined below:

*Weekly attendance lottery for those students achieving 100% attendance over the course of the previous week

*Issuing of Freebrough Flyers

*Positive phone calls home

*Positive letters home

*Awarding of Vivo points

*‘Cohort Attendance Reward’ (CAR) early lunch on a Friday for the cohort that achieves the best attendance over the course of the previous week.

*Issuing of ‘improved attendance’ certificates

*One to one commendation meetings with the Principal

*Bacon sandwiches (or vegetarian alternative) for those students achieving 100% attendance over the course of the half term

*VIP breakfast brunch for those students achieving 100% over the course of an Academic year

*The ‘12 Days of Christmas’ attendance incentive. Over Autumn Term 2, those students achieving 100% attendance will be eligible for the  ’12 Days of Christmas’ draw. A winner is revealed every day in the 12 days in December leading up to the Christmas holidays and the student receives a prize.

In addition to the many interventions for those students who are approaching or are already at the PA threshold of 85%, we use a variety of alternative initiatives to assist those other students who fall into the Amber (85-90%) and Blue (90-96%) categories. Outlined below are some of the interventions that we currently use:

*Tutor/Pastoral Leader and Attendance Officer support with issues affecting attendance

*Close Monitoring of attendance – progress tracked by student and tutor

*Individual incentives where appropriate

*Parents notified of concern

*Early intervention meetings

*Referrals to other agencies if required

If your child is absent from school then we kindly ask that you make it a priority to contact the attendance team on the morning of the first day of absence, so that we know that your child is safe. There is a messaging system assigned to the ‘student absence’ number so that if no one is available to take your call then you can leave a message. If your child is absent for more than one day then we would politely ask that you contact us on each day of absence.

If we have not heard from you by mid morning will when attempt to contact you to establish the reason behind your child’s absence. If we have difficulties contacting you then we will try ‘secondary contacts’ and/or send a text message of concern. You are able to reply to this text. If you would like to send an email explaining your child’s absence then the address is ‘[email protected]’.

If we have not had any contact on subsequent days of absence then the same process will apply. If no contact has been established by the fifth day of absence then a home visit will be carried out.

On occasions when you have sought medical advice for your child it would be extremely helpful if you could provide evidence of this. It may be in the form of an appointment card, a prescription or some medication. This can then be copied and remain in the student’s file to support their absence.

We understand that students may need to attend medical appointments. We would ask that you try and schedule these appointments outside of the normal school day so that it does not impact on your child’s learning. However on occasions when this is not possible we would ask that you provide some form of medical evidence to support your child’s absence. This is turn means that the absence can be noted as ‘authorised’.

Alongside the recent amendments in the law and as part of the Academy’s updated Attendance Policy we are no longer allowed to authorise holidays during term time except in exceptional circumstances. Term time holidays can result in a significant amount of work being missed which will in turn impact upon attainment. If a two week holiday is taken during the course of the Academic Year then attendance will automatically be reduced to less than 96%.

Should you wish to request holidays during term time then we ask that you request a holiday form from the Office/Attendance Team. This should then be returned to the Academy and it will be responded to in due course.

It is important that we make you fully aware of the implications should you choose to take your child out of school without permission from the Principal. We are required to make a referral to the Local Authority who may then decide to impose a Fixed Penalty Notice. This means that you are required to pay a sum of £60 within 21 days or £120 within 28 days. Failure to comply with this may result in court action and possibly a more punitive disposal.

You may find the Government website helpful in this instance. Please click here to view.

Please click on the following documents to download:

Attendance Policy

Request for Holiday in Term Time