Encouraging regular school attendance is one of the most powerful ways you can prepare your child for success, both in school and in life. When you make school attendance a priority, you help your child get better grades, develop healthy life habits, avoid dangerous behaviour and have a better chance of achieving their full potential.
Students who attend school regularly also feel more connected to their community, develop important social skills and friendships, and are significantly more likely to leave school with qualifications, setting them up for a strong future.
The target attendance figure for all students is a minimum of 96% attendance. 96-100% is the ‘Excellent Attendance’ group.
At 96% attendance – 73% of students achieve five good grades at GCSE (9-4) including English and Maths, however even at 96% attendance a student would have missed 45 hours of learning.
19 days off per school year means that a pupil has approx. 90% attendance. At 90 % attendance your child will have missed 97 lessons in one year! If this trend went throughout the 5 years a child is at secondary school, this would equate to half a year of missing school time in total.
The research shows that for every 17 days missed from school a child is likely to drop one GCSE grade in EVERY subject. Only 35% of those with attendance between 80-90% will achieve five good grades (9-4) at GCSE including English and Maths.
Absence
Please contact the school before 8:30am if your child is going to be absent from school, this can be done via our dedicated absence email address below.
When you email, please give the following information: your child’s name and tutor group, a brief reason for absence and when you expect them to return to school. You must do this for each day your child is absent.
If you do not have access to email, then please call the absence line on 01934 529531 and leave a message.
Please note the red band. If the student falls into this section the parent/ career may be issued with court action.
Working Together
We want to work in partnership with parents and carers and seek your full support in ensuring that your child attends school every day and on time. We are always pleased to work together with parents and carers in resolving any difficulties as we are committed to improving attendance levels at school.
We offer a range of rewards for students who have improved and good attendance.
Your child's form tutor will call you at home if attendance has fallen further, to discuss how to ensure your child does not fall behind their peers.
Please note this important information which will help you work with us to ensure that your child has the very best chance of success at Worle Community School an Academy:
Ensure your child comes to school every day, on time, equipped and ready to learn. Students should be ready to learn by 8.40am. Students arriving very late will be marked absent and will require an explanatory note or the absence will remain unauthorised.
Ensure the school has up to date addresses and telephone numbers. We will contact you if your child is absent and you have not contacted the school. This ensures your child’s safety and any truancy is quickly identified.
Key Points for Information
Students should attend school for 190 days per year.
We have an automatic first day call system which will call parents of students who are absence from school that morning with no reason given. It is important that if a student is late to school they register at Student Services. Students who arrive at school after 8:40 am but before 9:30am will be marked with an L code. Students arriving after 9:30am will be counted as unauthorised absence and they will be marked with a U. Students who receive either an L code or a U code will receive a 20 minute lunchtime detention the same day.
If your child is ill, contact the school on each day of absence, before 8.30am.
If no contact is received regarding the absence, it is recorded as unauthorised. Ultimately the school is responsible for deciding if the absence is acceptable or not. Only genuine absence will be authorised. You must provide medical certificates or evidence of appointments if you wish us to consider them, or if your child has a poor attendance record.
Ensure that medical appointments are made outside of school time where possible.
Holidays should not be taken in school time (please see the case below).
We will on occasion need to send you letters to let you know about potential effects of your child’s attendance, should it drop below 96%. In each of these letters there is specific legal wording which has to be used. Please respond to letters or telephone calls regarding attendance and punctuality as required by the content of the letter or if you wish to discuss the impact of attendance further.
Contact the attendance team if you are experiencing difficulty in getting your child into school.
All requests for leave of absence in term time must be made in writing on the leave of absence form at least four weeks in advance of the required date.
As a parent or carer you are committing an offence if you fail to ensure that your child attends school regularly and punctually, even if they are missing school without your knowledge.
How can Parents and Caregivers help to ensure good attendance at school: -
Send your child to school every day
Ensure your child is arrives punctually
Ensure your child knows how important education is
Encourage your child and show an interest in their education
Attend school open evenings and school events
Avoid taking family holidays during term time
Absences can hide problems that we could be wo together to sort out.
If your child is not wanting to attend school for any reason (feeling unwell, anxious etc) this can often be a sign that there is something worrying your child.
Some of the smallest issues can be a massive worry or concern to a child. If your child’s behaviour changes or they are pretending to be sick or just wanting to make excuses to stay at home please consider if there is something worrying your child and speak to the school.
What should you do if your child refuses to attend school?
Make contact with the school – we may be able to help
Do not cover for your child
Help the school to help put things right
Make sure that the child understands that you do not approve of them being absent
It is the parent’s and Caregivers responsibility to let the school know the reason for their child’s absence as soon as possible, on the first and every day of the absence.
Parents and Caregivers can only explain absences; they cannot authorise them.
The school decides whether explanations about absences are acceptable and if they can be authorised.
If your child has too many authorised or unauthorised absences, then the school will be in contact with you to find out what can be done to help get your child back into school regularly.
Circumstances when penalty notices might be issues unauthorised Absence/Truancy:
Schools can refer into the ‘Early Help Family Support – School Attendance Services’ when the referral criteria of below 90% attendance with 10% of unauthorised absence has been met.
Penalty notices may be issued following an Attendance Panel where there has been assessment of unacceptable levels of unauthorised absence. #
From 1 September 2013, the Department of Education changed the regulations regarding requests for family holidays during term time. The changes to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 mean there is no legal entitlement for parents to take their children on holiday during term time. The new regulations also make it clear that Head Teachers may not authorise leave during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Head Teachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.
Thank you for working in partnership with us to achieve the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality at WCSA.
Court Case and the Law
In April 2017 the Supreme Court upheld the ban on parents taking their children out of school for family holidays during term time. We have been advised by the Local Authority they will be reverting back to their original code of conduct and will be issuing Penalty Notice Fines.
Delivering the judgement, the deputy president of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale, said: “Unauthorised absences have a disruptive effect, not only on the education of the individual child but also on the work of other pupils.
“If one pupil can be taken out whenever it suits the parent, then so can others ... Any educational system expects people to keep the rules. Not to do so is unfair to those obedient parents who do keep the rules, whatever the costs or inconvenience to themselves.”
