Regular attendance creates consistency in your child’s learning and therefore leads to:
- Academy work being easier to cope with
- Students feel more secure
- Work being more satisfying
- Better results
- Better job prospects and references
- Increased self-esteem
We are concerned that your child maintains high levels of attendance, therefore:
We try to contact parents/cares on the first day of absence to find out why their child is away.
We ask parents/cares to telephone as soon as possible when their child is absent leaving the child’s name, year group and tutor group, and send a letter on their return to the academy.
If a student is frequently ill on the same day each week – we will investigate to see if there is something wrong at the academy.
Wherever possible ALL appointments, including dental and medical, should be made OUTSIDE of academy time.
ATTENDANCE – Unauthorised Absence
Earlier in the year you would have received information from Suffolk County Council explaining that the process for Penalty Notices has now changed. In the letter it stated that a Penalty Notice Warning letter for unauthorised absences will no longer apply. The warning letter has since been replaced by an immediate fine. Therefore if your child is ever absent it is really important that you inform us as to the reason why otherwise the absence could lead to a fine being issued. All term time holidays will be unauthorised as will persistent absentees who don’t provide medical evidence.
HOLIDAYS
Please note the following amendments that came into force on 1 September 2013
“The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 currently allow Principals to grant leave of absence for the purpose of a family holiday during term time in “special circumstances” of up to ten school days leave per year. Principals can also grant extended leave for more than ten school days in exceptional circumstances.
Amendments to the 2006 regulations remove references to family holiday and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. The amendments make clear that Principals may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Principals should determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.”
(Department for Education website).
As a result of the change, we will no longer issue holiday leave forms. Any application for term-time leave of absence must be by letter for exceptional reasons only and must be sent to the Principal in good time (at least two weeks prior to the leave unless the request is due to an emergency).
PUNCTUALITY
It is important that your child arrives on time. Students are expected to be in their classroom for first lesson by 09:00.
- If they are later than 08:55 they must sign in at the academy reception.
- If they are not in Period 1 by the time the register closes at 09:30 they will receive an absence mark.
ILLNESS AND INJURY
If your child is ill or injured they should tell a member of staff. They will then be referred to the front office and the Medical First Aid Team. Parents will be contacted by the academy should their child need to go home. Students should not contact their family by mobile phone.
Our Attendance Policy can be found on the ‘Policies’ page.