Attendance and Absence
Good attendance and punctuality matter.
Our expectations are that students will achieve at least 96% attendance unless there are exceptional medical circumstances. Even 95% allows for two weeks' absence. It goes without saying that there is a very high correlation between school achievement and good attendance, and we monitor this very closely and ask for you to work in partnership with us in seeing your child make the very best of school life. Please encourage your child to be punctual; it is obviously very good training for future life. Our school gates close for registration at 08:45 and open again at 15:15 when school finishes.
Link: The Timing of the School Day
If your child is ill or unavoidably absent, please telephone the school explaining the absence before 07:30. This must be done on each day of absence. Our expectation is that students will achieve at least 96% attendance or above across the year unless there are exceptional medical circumstances. Even 96% allows for two weeks of absence. It goes without saying that there is a very high correlation between school achievement and good attendance, and we monitor this very closely and ask for you to work in partnership with us in seeing your child make the very best of school life.
Please note all doctor or dental appointments should be made for after school or in holiday time. School holidays account for 14 weeks of the year and parents are expected to arrange all family holidays during these times.
Application for Unavoidable Student Leave Of Absence During Term-Time (Holiday Or Other) Guidelines
DfE Guidance and the Pupil Registration Regulations (September 2013) state that headteachers may not grant leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. We, therefore, have discretionary power to grant a student leave of absence during term time but only in exceptional circumstances and parents must not assume there is an automatic right.
Unavoidable or exceptional term time absence requests should be made via the Leave of Absence Form (available from reception or the attendance office) prior to any arrangements being made. The application should be, wherever possible, submitted at least 3 months before the planned absence, and absences cannot be authorised retrospectively. It will only be in extremely exceptional circumstances that any leave of absence of more than 5 days will be granted.
In the following circumstances leave is highly likely not to be authorised:
- The request is for a family holiday.
- The student's attendance over the year is less than 95%.
- There is a school examination during the period of leave.
- There are public examinations or coursework deadlines immediately before, after or during the proposed leave.
- The student has a serious deficit of work to catch up on owing to recent long illnesses or serious underachievement.
- The student is in a year with public examinations.
- The request is for a day or days immediately before or after a school holiday.
In all cases of student absence, it is the responsibility of the student to catch up on any work they miss during an absence.
If your request is not authorised:
- This will be coded as an unauthorised absence on your child's register record.
- The school will not provide work during the period of absence.
Where family holidays or leave of absence are taken without the permission of the school, parents can be given a Penalty Notice (fine) for periods of unauthorised absence. Please refer to the Penalty Notice Code of Conduct on North Yorkshire's Services webpage for further details.
Unauthorised absences are shown on reports and ultimately could impact school references, and potentially hinder employment prospects. For more than 20 days' of unauthorised absence at one time, the student will be referred to the Education Social Work Service at North Yorkshire Children's Services and can be taken off the school roll.
We appreciate your support in ensuring that absence is minimised and ensuring procedures are followed for requesting any absence.
