1 STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE
We believe that attendance and punctuality at the Academy is vital to the well - being and future prospects of all our students. Attendance and punctuality is intrinsically linked to our Academy strategy for raising achievement. This policy provides the framework within which all staff, parents, students, carers and external agencies can contribute to the development and maintenance of a learning environment where high attendance and excellent punctuality is the “norm”.
2 AIMS

To improve the overall percentage attendance and reduce unauthorised absence;

To establish a clear system for maintaining full attendance and excellent punctuality
3 and that this is clearly communicated to all Academy staff, students and parents who are all working to agreed routines and standards;

To develop a learning environment for the Academy where students are encouraged to attend regularly and to be punctual because students feel valued members of the
Academy community and that they are safe and secure;

To put in place an effective and efficient administration system for monitoring and intervening with issues relating to attendance and punctuality;

To offer students and parents/carers good support, advice and guidance on the importance of good attendance and punctuality.
OBJECTIVES
3.1 For students

To ensure that students maximise their learning potential by taking responsibility for achieving excellent levels of attendance and punctuality.

To support their fellow students and thereby their Learning Hub in winning awards that relate to attendance and punctuality.

To follow the Academy procedures for dealing with attendance and punctuality e.g., bringing in signed letters from parents after a period of absence or late arrival for the
Academy day.
3.2 For Parents and Carers

To be fully supportive of the Academy with regard to attendance and punctuality as part of signing up to the Home-Academy Agreement.

To support the Academy and their child(ren) by not requesting authorised absence for holidays during term time and minimising where possible all other authorised absence, for example, dental appointments during the Academy day.
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
To follow the Academy procedures for dealing with attendance through making contact with the Academy on the first day of absence and where this is not possible, ensuring that they send a signed letter to the Academy when their child returns.

To read and follow the guide (Appendix 1) for parents/carers which details all our expectations and procedures regarding attendance and punctuality.
3.3 For Teachers/Form Tutors

To act as role models by being punctual to every lesson/registration and to be standing outside the door of their room to greet students upon their arrival.

To take the register at the beginning of every lesson/registration period in accordance with the procedures outlined in this policy.

To deal with any unauthorised absence from lessons, monitor the daily attendance statistics and deal with suspected truancy as detailed in this policy.

To take responsibility for dealing with issues of attendance and punctuality in relation to their tutor group e.g., absence letters, liaising with Education Welfare Officers
(EWOs) in the Student Support Service (LSS).

To encourage their students and tutees to take responsibility for their attendance and punctuality through monitoring and reinforcing the need for high levels of attendance and excellent punctuality, for example, top tutor group of the week and using the Academy reward system.

To assist in reintegrating any of their tutees/students after a period of prolonged absence.
3.4 For Coordinators

To raise the profile of good attendance and monitor the attendance of students allocated to their subject areas.

To be responsible for regular liaison with the Assistant Principal and EWO regards poor attendance of students and issues related to poor punctuality.

To liaise with parents as appropriate in response to attendance, punctuality and truancy issues; attending panel meetings as appropriate.

To ensure that teachers/tutors in their subject areas fulfil their duties regarding attendance and punctuality and to take appropriate action when this does not occur.

To ensure that the Academy reward system in relation to attendance and punctuality is used effectively within their subject areas.
3.5 For Student Information Centre/Learning Support Services Staff

To ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the Academy computerised registration systems for attendance and punctuality, for example, processing registers, preparing and distributing attendance data.

To liaise with Learning Hub administration staff/teachers and establish reasons for absence including telephone calls to parents/carers on the first day of absence, letters and home visits.
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
To assist in following up poor attendance and punctuality, for example, organising attendance panel meetings with parents/carers and external agencies, making home visits, ensuring that student contracts and targets are agreed and monitored.
3.5 For the Academy Leadership Team

Through the Assistant Principal, to co-ordinate and monitor the policy and procedures for attendance and punctuality throughout the Academy.

To raise the profile and importance of attendance and punctuality, for example, through the assembly programme and the reward systems that are put in place.

To analyse and act swiftly in response to report data on attendance and punctuality.

Ensure that the learning environment on offer to students, through the curriculum, personalised learning, behaviour policy and reintegration procedures, create the foundations for excellent attendance and punctuality and low levels of fixed term exclusions.

To ensure that Academy expectations in regards to this policy on attendance and punctuality is communicated clearly to all stakeholders.
3.6 For the Governors

To annually review and agree the Attendance and Punctuality Policy.

To annually agree attendance targets.

To take a lead role in supporting the Academy in the implementation of its approach to attendance and punctuality especially in our response to parents in supporting unauthorized absence.
4 ABSENCE
Under Section 7 of the Education Act (1996), parents/carers have a legal duty to make sure that their child(ren) attends the Academy on a regular and full-time basis. Every half day absence has to be classified by the Academy as either authorised or unauthorised. The Academy must record the reason for any half day absence.
Unauthorised absence such as truancy will lead to sanctions being taken against students or in exceptional cases, extended periods of unauthorised absence may lead to legal action being taken against parents.
Under normal circumstances, the only reason a student should miss any lessons is if they are too ill to attend. This is an example of an authorised absence, i.e., students have missed a morning or afternoon session for a valid reason. Unauthorised absences are those, which the Academy does not consider reasonable and for which no permission has been given. This includes keeping students away from lessons unnecessarily, truancy and absences, which the Academy considers to have not been properly explained.
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The Education (Pupil Regulations) 2006 and the DfES Circular 10/99 state that a leave of absence can only be granted at the discretion of the Academy Governing
Body/Principal. Only in exceptional cases shall more than ten days be granted in any one year. The Academy does not support any holidays during term time but will consider a leave of absence on compassionate grounds upon request.
The Senior EWO works with the Principal in overseeing any such requests from parents. Each request will be considered individually taking into account: the age(s) of the student(s), the time of year, overall attendance percentage(s) and the progress of the student(s) . If the Academy does not agree to the request then the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. If the leave of absence involves any travel arrangement, these must not be booked until permission is granted. The leave of absence application form (in Appendix four) must be requested in writing to the student’s form tutor. The
Senior EWO will pass the request to the Principal along with the recent attendance certificate and any other relevant information. The Principal will consider the request taking into account:
 The student’s previous attendance history;

The time of the year regards any public or internal examinations;

Attendance and punctuality in the current academic year;

The nature of the request and whether any other requests have been made. i
5 a
A letter of approval (or a letter stating the request is not approved) will then be sent to the parent/guardian clearly stipulating that approval is only given in these exceptional circumstances and that no further requests will be considered. Parents/Guardians are also informed that if any leave is taken beyond the dates agreed, a fixed penalty notice could be issued. Section 7.4 outlines the Academy policy when a leave of absence is taken without being approved.
All data relating to attendance will be kept for a minimum period of three years from the last date of entry.
PROCEDURES FOR REGISTRATION
Form Registration
Morning registration sets the tone for the rest of the Academy day. The warning bell will ring at 8.25 am and tutors should prepare to be at their tutor base to meet their tutees and take the register by 8.30 am. It is the tutor’s responsibility to formally take the register and this task must never be delegated to students.
As with any lesson, we expect tutors to ensure that students are in appropriate uniform, in their designated seats with bags placed on the floor. The register will formally close at 8.50 am. Registers will be taken by computer, where there is a breakdown of this system paper registers can be collected by the tutor or register monitor from the Student Information Centre (SIC) in the main building.
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h ii a f b no further action is required; but when there is no good reason, for example, oversleeping, tutors must challenge this and inform their tutee that this will be recorded as a late. Tutors must check for patterns of lateness and follow the sanctions prescribed in the Attendance Policy regarding persistent lateness.
Students who arrive after the late bell, will be set an ‘early bird’ detention for the following morning from 8:10 to 8:30. Failure to attend this will result in a coordinators ’ detention. c
Tutees who are late, up to 8.50 am will have their names written in the late book, administered by the Assistant Principal. Any lateness will be challenged. Where there is a legitimate reason, for example, unavoidable transport problems, then
Students who arrive between 8.50am and 9.40am must register with a designated pastoral leader. Students will be issued with a late slip, which they must present to the subject teacher. Depending on the reason for the lateness, a letter for a 60 minute detention will also be given to the student.
Subject teachers must send a student back to SIC if they do not have a late slip. Any absence after 9.00am is recorded as a “U” i.e., late after the registers closed and thus will be treated as an unauthorised absence for the am session. d During Assembly days, the tutor will complete the register in the Assembly Hall.
This information will be passed to the SIC who will update the student register and record this as a late. e After registration at 8.50am, register folders must be immediately returned to the
SIC fully completed. These are the only records the Academy has of students being on site and therefore it is the responsibility of the tutors to ensure they are accurate and readily available for reasons of health and safety.
CMIS is used to process registers and the codes to be used by tutors in completing the register are shown in Appendix 2. g An information log will be used as a means of recording messages and issues to do with attendance and will be stored in the tutor group register.
The register taken during Lesson 6 will act as the afternoon registration.
Subject Registration
It is essential that an electronic subject register is taken at the start of every lesson, within the first five minutes. This will ensure that the Academy is able to monitor and reduce truancy from lessons. SIC staff will monitor subject registers to determine any suspected truancy and will pass this information on to form tutors, Coordinators and Assistant Principals. If it is found that a student has been truanting then this will be formally recorded as an unauthorised absence.
The procedures for dealing with truancy are stipulated in Section 6.
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b Lateness to lessons must be challenged and recorded. Students who arrive more than 4 minutes after the change of lessons, must be marked in as late and an
SAD set.. Students who are late for a legitimate reason, must have a signed note from a member of staff or a late slip from SIC c Teachers must ensure that they enter an “L” into the computerised register should the student be late so that CMIS records are accurate.
6 PUNCTUALITY/TRUANCY
It is vitally important teachers and form tutors are punctual to lessons/tutor sessions, otherwise this gives the impression to students that late arrival is acceptable. Tutors,
Coordinators and Assistant Principal must reinforce the importance of punctuality when communicating with students and parents.
Procedures for dealing with lateness are dealt with in Section 5 above.
Truancy is not tolerated at the Academy and will be dealt with swiftly in line with the sanctions detailed in the behaviour policy. Truancy will lead to a letter home to parents and an immediate 60 minute Coordinator ’s detention with a minimum of 24 hours’ notice. Students will be expected to complete the work of the lesson that they missed during that detention. A second offence of truancy will then lead to a 90 minute
Principalship detention along with a letter home to parents inviting them in for an interview. The student will then be placed on an attendance report. Failure to complete the report will result in a 60 minute detention on the same day with the Assistant
Principal. Any subsequent truancy will lead to the student being placed in the internal exclusion unit for a period of one day. If this does not support the student in refraining from truancy then a panel meeting with parents initiated by the EWO will be organised as outlined in Section 7.
7 STRATEGIES FOR ENSURING HIGH ATTENDANCE AND EXCELLENT
PUNCTUALITY
7.1 Rewards and Incentives
Assistant Principals must take overall responsibility for encouraging and rewarding publicly the need for high attendance and excellent levels of punctuality. This will commonly be achieved through Learning Hub assemblies and encouraging a competitive spirit with other Learning Hubs, i.e., Learning Hubs will compete in having the highest attendance statistics and best levels of punctuality. Informal praise and formal awards should both be used and supported by all Academy Staff. Formal attendance and punctuality awards will comprise:

100% Attendance
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These will be issued annually and signed by the Assistant Principal and Principal and are placed in the student’s file.

Excellent Attendance Certificate
These are awarded to students who are generally excellent attendees but who have been unavoidably absent e.g. funeral. They are issued by SIC and signed by the
Assistant Principal and placed in the student
’s progress file.

100% Punctuality
These are awarded to students who have an excellent punctuality record. Issued and signed by SIC and placed in the students’ progress file.
7.2 First Day contact and Dealing with absence
SIC staff will attempt to contact any parent/carer on the first day of absence and establish the reason for absence. Any concerns regarding attendance of vulnerable students where contact with home has not been successfully established, must be followed up immediately and persistently. Where necessary and relevant, social services need to be alerted regarding the concerns. A telephone call will substitute for a note but SIC must ensure that the caller is authentic. SIC and tutors will enter information regarding student absence in the Information Log located in the register folder. Where contact has not been possible, form tutors must support the SIC by following up any absence with students and obtaining signed notes from parents.
Information should be entered in the Information Log by tutors in order for the SIC to process the necessary amendments.
A list of all outstanding absences will be processed by SIC and distributed to tutors and
Coordinators. When a letter from the parent is not forthcoming, the SIC will process a letter to the parent/carer requesting a reason to cover the dates(s) concerned. When this has been received they will update the Information Log.
The data on the Information Log will be updated on to CMIS on a daily basis by SIC staff.
7.3 Attendance Support
Attendance and punctuality will be monitored through the following computerised processes:

Daily lists of absences;

Follow up procedures on the first day of absence;

Subject registrations;

Weekly Statistics;
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
Rewards and sanctions statistics for attendance and punctuality as outlined above.
Where students are likely to have a period of long absence, for example from a period of illness, then tutors should liaise with parents and make arrangements for work to be made available.
Coordinators have the major responsibility for identifying persistent poor attendance and punctuality. The LSS Coordinator will also analyse attendance data and look for patterns of absence and poor punctuality in relation to students with Special Educational
Needs.
Where there is a significant pattern of absence, Coordinators/the LSS Coordinator will:

Involve the EWO in developing strategies for intervention including a letter being sent home to parents/carers informing them of the cause for concern and the negative impact on student learning; and/or home visits.

Attend as relevant, weekly panel meetings to discuss any students causing concern regarding attendance and punctuality.

If attendance falls below 85%, work with the EWO in convening a “Persistent
Absence, PA” attendance panel meeting, involving parents, in establishing targets for attendance and punctuality along with strategies for support in successfully reintegrating students back into the Academy. The Academy will use a PA planning sheet to track and record the attendance and intervention support of any student whose attendance is below 85%.

Students with attendance between 85% and 90% will also be tracked and the appropriate action taken, for example, a meeting with parents. Patterns will also be analysed to detect any condoned absence or suspected periods of truancy.

For attendance between 90% - 95%, we expect Coordinators and Tutors to play an active role in advocating the importance of full attendance to both students and parents. Further procedures in respect of the tutors role in ensuring full attendance is provided in the Tutor File.

If the attendance is longer than a period of ten continuous days and is treated as unauthorised absence, then the LEA must be informed.
 All steps will be taken by the EWO to ascertain the student’s whereabouts and documentation should be kept on this process.

The LA must be further informed if the student ’s absence is continuous for a further
10 days.
In a small minority of cases, referrals may have to be made to the LEA, for example, where parents are unwilling and failing to comply with the agreed action plans as a result of a panel meeting resulting in attendance being between 50% and 85% with at least half of the absences being unauthorised or absence is more than 50%. This may lead to the issue of a fixed penalty notice and possibly court action being taken if the LA involvement does not lead to the student returning to the Academy.
7.4 Warning Letters and Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs)
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The Academy believes that when the avenue of supportive intervention such as telephone calls, meetings with parents and any home visits have been used and there has been no improvement in attendance then we will use the legal avenues that are open to us. Our policy will involve the use of the following:
7.4.1 Leave of Absence
As stated in Section 4, the Academy does not support any holidays requested during term time. If a request is made for a leave of absence and this is not approved and the student does not attend during the stated period then a fixed penalty notice could be issued upon the student’s return.
7.4.2 Students with less than 90% attendance (with unauthorised absence)
Students who have less than 90% attendance with any period of unauthorised absence within a 6 week period will receive a warning letter from the Academy. This letter will state the student’s overall attendance percentage and that if there is no improvement in attendance, normally within the subsequent 3 week period then a fixed penalty notice will be issued.
7.4.3 Late for the Academy day (after registers have closed – use of the U code)
Students who arrive at the Academy after 9.00am are registered as “late after the registers have closed” and this is recorded as a U, which is an unauthorised absence for the am session. Any parent/carer of a student who records more than 5 U codes in any one half-term will be issued with a fixed penalty notice. This will be preceded by a warning letter to the parent/carer after the 3 rd U is recorded in the Academy register informing of the consequences of reaching a 5 th U in the register.
7.5 Reintegration Programmes
If a student has had a period of absence for longer than five days then the form tutor will instigate the reintegration programme. This will involve the tutor supporting their tutee in reintegrating back into Academy life. It will involve a series of support meetings initiated by a first meeting that explains the programme to students, discusses subject issues and sets agreed targets. This is then developed through further support meetings over a period of two weeks after the date of return. The completed form will then be placed in the student’s file by the SIC. The form is in Appendix 3.
8 MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REVIEW
The Academy will monitor the effectiveness of this policy through Vice Principal 2 who will oversee the generation of attendance data and report to the ALGwhere there are any key issues. The ALG will analyse the data to look for patterns and generate the required plans of action, for example, reviewing any related policies and procedures
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such as Student Voice in working with students to generate strategies to improve punctuality. Comparisons will be made with the national average for academies and action to improve attendance and/or punctuality will feature in the Academy
Improvement Plan.
Created by CEn April 2007
Reviewed by S Hainey June 2012
Approved by Governors (MA June 2012)
Review Date June 2013
Reviewed by G Landman June 2013
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(See attached sheet)
APPENDIX ONE
– GUIDE FOR PARENTS
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APPENDIX TWO
– ATTENDANCE CODES, DESCRIPTIONS AND MEANINGS
For use with the am and pm roll call.
Code Description Statistical meaning
Physical meaning
/ Present (AM) Present
\ Present (PM) Present
In for whole
Academy
In for whole
Academy
@ Do not use
B
C
Educated off site
Other Authorised Circumstances
(not covered by another appropriate code/description)
Unauthorised
Absence LATE FOR
SESSIONS
Approved educational Activity
Out for the whole session
Authorised absence Out for the whole session
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
L
M
N
O
P
Dual registration
Excluded
Approved
Educational Activity
Out for the whole session
Authorised absence Out for the whole session
Extended family holiday agreed) Authorised absence Out for the whole session
Family holiday (not agreed) Unauthorised absence
Out for the whole session
Family Holiday agreed
Illness (NOT medical or dental etc appointments)
Interview
Late
Medical/Dental appointments
Authorised absence Out for the whole session
Authorised absence Out for the whole session
Approved
Educational Activity
Present
Out for the whole session
Late for session
No reason yet provided for absence
Unauthorised absence (not covered by any other code/description)
Approved Sporting Activity
Authorised absences
Unauthorised absence
Unauthorised absence
Approved
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole
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R
S
T
U
V
Religious Observance
Study Leave
Traveller Absence
Late after registers closed)
Educational visit or trip
Educational Activity session
Authorised absences
Authorised absences
Authorised absences
Unauthorised absence
Approved
Educational Activity
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Late for session
Out for the whole session
W
X
Work experience
DCSF: Academy closed to
Students
Enforced closure
Approved
Educational Activity
Attendance required not
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Y
Z
!
#
Do NOT USE
DCSF X: Non-compulsory
Academy age abs
Academy closed to Students and staff
DCSF Z: Student not on roll
Attendance required
Attendance required
Attendance required not not not
Out for the whole session
Authorised Absence Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
Out for the whole session
* Attendance required
No mark not Out for the whole session
No mark for session - All should attend/ No mark recorded
During lesson registration , subject teachers will record only present (P), absent (N) or late (L).
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APPENDIX THREE
– REINTEGRATION FORM AFTER PROLONGED ABSENCE
Student Name and Tutor Group
Assistant
Principal
Date of First
Absence
Details of outstanding work
Coordinator
Targets
(including priorities) set with students
Meeting 1
Meeting 2:
5 days later
1.
2.
3.
Outcomes
Outcomes
Date of Return to the Academy
Subjects and brief outline of the work missed:
Meeting 3:
10 days later
Outcomes
Outcomes Meeting 4:
15 days later
Tutor’s Signature _________________________ Student signature _____________
Return form to SIC for inclusion in the student’s file
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Appendix 4 APPLICATION FOR LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Please read the following information before you complete the request.
As you aware it is the policy of the Academy not to allow any holiday or extended leave during term time. However, if you wish to request leave of absence you need to read the following advice and complete the form below.
This form must be completed 2 weeks prior to the requested leave of absence. Each request for absence will be considered individually and we will take into account:
 The student’s previous attendance history;

The time of the year regards any public or internal examinations;


Attendance and punctuality in the current academic year;
The nature of the request and whether any other requests have been made.
A fixed penalty notice will be issued should a student take leave of absence without permission.
Full Name of Student: Tutor Group:
Address:
Telephone Number:
Reason for request for leave of absence:
Intended dates of absence:
Name of parent/carers: Signature: Date:
For Office Use only :
Form to be submitted to Vice Principal along with Attendance Certificate
Agreement given Yes/No
Appropriate letter to be prepared for return to parent/carer and given to Vice Principal for signature.
Signed: Date:
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