All absences must be reported on the first day of absence through the school telephone system to the school office or the pastoral team. You will be asked for a reason for the absence and an estimation of how long the absence is likely to before. If your child’s attendance is being monitored by the attendance team then you may be required to provide medical evidence. If the absence is going to be longer than three days, you will be asked for medical evidence. The school does not authorise term-time holidays unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The attendance team monitors pupil absence daily and weekly reviews take place with the head teacher. The expectation is for all pupils’ attendance to be above 96%. Every term, parents will be sent a colour-coded letter to indicate the zone of attendance for their child:

• Green – 96%+
• Amber – 90%+
• Red – below 90%.

Where a child’s absence is around or below 90% then the attendance team will liaise with the Education Welfare Service (EWS). Parents may be invited in to an attendance clinic with the EWS to identify how improvements in attendance can be made. If little improvements are not made then the EWS will begin the process of warnings, visits and possibly fines.

A copy of our graduated response to behaviour can be found here.

Recognising strong attendance is key and celebrating improvements in attendance is important. Positive points on Dojo, will be given to all pupils to acknowledge good attendance, and will be awarded daily for pupils who are “ready to learn”.   In addition, we have the following rewards:
 

• Every week, a class in each key stage with the highest attendance wins our attendance bears, Benjamin or Bethany.  They spend the week with the class and their adventures are shared in Celebration Assembly the following week.
• Every week, each class is awarded a red, amber or green token based on their attendance for the week.  At the end of every half term, the green tickets are collected and put into a prize draw.  The class who is pulled out of the prize draw wins a £20 Amazon voucher to spend on resources for their class.
• Each week, pupils are identified from attendance meetings who might need additional rewards and incentives.  Reward charts will be put into place for the week with an incentive of 5 Dojos and a Coop prize for improved attendance or punctuality over the year.  These reward charts are logged on Arbor.
• Every month, “know your attendance weeks” are held.  During this week, the attendance team check if pupils know their class attendance (this is recorded on classroom doors every week).  Spot prizes are given along with spot prizes for any children who have improved their attendance and punctuality.
• Further ad-hoc attendance initiatives and events will take place half termly across the year within year groups in order to boost and encourage full attendance. An example of this are random 100% attendance weeks where pupils are rewarded for gaining 100% all week. 
• At the end of every term, pupils who achieve 96%+ attendance, have no recorded lates and no holidays will be entered into a prize draw.  The winner will receive a £50 gift card to spend as a family (e.g. cinema voucher, Tesco gift card, Amazon gift card, restaurant voucher).  This is reset every term to give pupils a chance to improve their attendance over the year.

Attendance achievements will be communicated to families regularly through the Arbor app, on the website and through social media.

We are conscious, as an academy, that sometimes absence is unavoidable. And in our approach toward rewarding and recognising attendance we aim to ensure we are not inadvertently penalising those whose absence was unavoidable. This includes recognising improved attendance; attending on ‘every day possible’ and looking at individual attendance records when deciding who needs to be recognised.

Click here for our Attendance Policy

Call us or pop in and speak to our attendance officer