Attendance
Education provides a means of advancement for all young people to improve their life chances. Regular school attendance is a legal requirement for those registered at a school. Without it, the efforts of the best teachers and schools will come to nothing.
Pupils need to attend regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Irregular attendance undermines that educational process and leads to educational disadvantage. It places children at risk and in some cases, it can result in pupils being drawn into patterns of anti-social or criminal behaviour.
Our school opens at 8:30am, with the school day officially starting at 8:40am and ending at 3:00pm.
Children arriving after 8:40am will be marked as late.
Adults must sign latecomers into school with Academy Admin Centre staff on both campuses.
Continued lateness will be reported and discussed with the parents.
If your child is ill please report their absence either by telephone, in person or in written form that is signed.
Leave and Holidays in Term time
From 1 September 2013, a new law gave no entitlement to parents to take their child on holiday during term time. Any application for leave must only be in exceptional circumstances and the Associate Principal must be satisfied that the circumstances are exceptional and warrant the granting of leave. The Associate Principal would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional. Parents can be fined by the local authority for taking their child on holiday during term time without the consent of the school.
The Local Authority’s decision to issue a fixed Penalty Notice is based on information submitted by the school.
Triggers for the Fixed Notice Penalty will be
- 10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence in a 12 week period, including unauthorised holidays and unauthorised lates.
It is important that parents understand that the initial fixed penalty notice of £60 is issued to each parent for each child. A two-parent family with two children would therefore be fined £240.
Requests for leave must be given using the ‘Request for Leave of Absence Form’ to the Associate Principal.