To report your child absent please:
Send a message through the Class Charts app or telephone school on 0161 368 5132
Attendance Policies
School Attendance
Regular and punctual school attendance is vital if students are to maximise opportunities and reach their full potential.
We appreciate the support of parents and carers in encouraging their children to attend regularly and if there are any school related issues that may impact on this we have a number of support options and strategies within school to help overcome these.
Clearly attendance at school is crucial and, as you would expect, performance data shows that there is an absolute link between attendance patterns and achievement; quite simply those students who have the highest attendance rates do best. It is worth remembering that if, for whatever reason, a child misses 10 days of school in a term, he or she will miss 50 teaching periods and, despite everyone’s best intentions and efforts, this time can never be made up.
We have a duty to remind parents of the following:
Section 444(A) of the Education Act 1996 empowers the local authority to issue Penalty Notices in cases of unauthorised absence from school. This means that when a pupil has unauthorised absence of 10 sessions (5 days) or more, in any term (where no acceptable reason has been given for the absence) or if their child persistently arrives late for school after the close of registration, their parents or carers may receive a Penalty Notice fine of £60, which must be paid within 21 days. If payment is made after 21 days but within 28 days, the penalty is increased to £120. Where a fine remains unpaid after 28 days, the matter will be referred to the Magistrate’s Court to instigate criminal proceedings.
In law, an offence occurs if a parent or carer fails to secure a child’s regular attendance at school. Tameside Education Welfare Service, in conjunction with schools and Greater Manchester Police, will use these powers as an early deterrent to prevent patterns of unauthorised absence developing.
Parents may also receive a Penalty Notice without a warning letter for the offence of failing to secure regular school attendance if they go on holiday in term time. Due to changes in legislation effective from September 2013, the Head teacher no longer has the discretion to authorise holidays during term time.
If you require leave of absence for your child due to exceptional circumstances then please write to Mrs R Anderson, Senior Leader for Safeguarding, explaining the reason for the request.
If a parent chooses to take their child on holiday during term time for 5 days or more, then school will refer to the Local Authority and a Penalty Notice will be issued.
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 also makes it an offence if a parent fails to ensure that their child is not in a public place during the first 5 days of a fixed term or permanent exclusion. Penalty Notices may be issued in relation to this matter.
Arriving late at school
Students should be in their form room at 8.20am ready for the school day to commence, and any student who arrives at their form room after 8.20am (8:21am onwards) will be given a late mark in the register and a 30 minute after school detention the same day. The register officially closes at 8.50am and after that time students will be given a mark that shows that they are in school but it will be classed as an unauthorised absence.
Any time learning time missed due to a late arrival will be made up after school that day. Students will return to the teacher whose lesson they missed that morning.
Medical appointments during the school day
If a student has a medical appointment first thing in the morning and comes into school afterwards, depending on the time that they arrive, they will be given either a late mark or a medical mark which is classed as an authorised absence for the morning session. A student can come into school first thing and sign out for an appointment and still get their attendance mark as long as they are back in school for the afternoon registration period.
In order to reduce absenteeism, I would be grateful if all parents could note the following:
- Consider whether any absence is absolutely necessary, minor ailments do not always warrant time of school.
- Please make any medical appointments for after school. Where this is not possible, students should attend school before and after the appointment and not simply take the whole morning or afternoon off.
- Clearly all students must attend days when we have an early closure and finish at lunchtime. Students actually only miss one lesson (we have four lessons in the morning and one in the afternoon) but in the past some parents have kept their child off for the day.
- Unless absolutely essential, avoid any holidays in term time.
- In the past some parents have kept a child off school to go shopping, have a haircut or because it is their birthday. Clearly reasons such as this are unacceptable.
If your child is going to be absent please contact school at the earliest opportunity. This enables us to code the absence accurately on our registers, any absence for minor ailments will not be authorised without medical evidence. Please see the advice from one of the local GPs about common problems you can solve without a GP appointment https://tinyurl.com/HTMCCommonProblemsYouCanSolve
If you would like to discuss your child’s attendance or have any issues that you would like to clarify, please contact the Attendance office or your child's Progress Leader.
Thank you again for your continuing support.
Yours sincerely
Rachel Anderson
Senior Leader for Safeguarding
For further information about school attendance please see:-
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/behaviour/attendance