Attendance

Progress and achievement depend upon good school attendance. The school works rigorously to ensure that high levels of attendance are maintained and an excellent standard of punctuality is modelled by all of our students. We act swiftly to identify and address unauthorised absence or low attendance and will seek to resolve these issues.

The monitoring of attendance is supported by attendance, pastoral and teaching staff. We utilise reports within Bromcom to understand attendance on a daily, weekly, half termly and termly basis.

Every student should aim for 100% attendance and punctuality. Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child attends school. A child’s potential can only be reached if high levels of attendance are maintained.

The attendance and punctuality of students is monitored daily by form tutors, Year Leaders and the Attendance Team. We work closely with the Local Authority who support us if we need to issue a fixed penalty notice for students who are persistently absent from school. The Local Authority is also responsible for pursuing court action if poor attendance continues. The school will utilise the Early Help Assessment to identify barriers and strategies to improve school attendance.

We encourage and reward excellent attendance and punctuality with achievement points and prizes at the end of each term during the celebration assemblies. Alongside this the school rewards and recognises improved attendance in students who have previously had low attendance.

This table shows the effect of attendance on academic progress. A student who achieves 100% attendance will average a Grade 7-9 in their best 8 qualifications.

As a parent or carer, you are committing an offence if you regularly fail to ensure that your child attends regularly, even if they are missing time at school without your permission or knowledge. If a student’s attendance drops below 95% or has 5 or more days off in the current or previous terms, a sequence of communications is issued as a prompt that attendance is dropping and needs to improve.

If a student’s attendance drops below 90%, they are classified as a ‘Persistent Absentee’. These students are monitored and intervention initiated by school. They may also be reported to the Local Authority who will consider whether or not to take legal action against parents or carers.

A Penalty Notice may be served if 12 sessions (6 school days) of unauthorised absence are reached over a 12-week period. If a fine is applied for and imposed, £60 will be required to be paid within 21 days (escalating to £120 if paid after 21 days and within 28 days). If the fine remains unpaid then court action may result.

If the student’s attendance does not significantly improve, then court action may result in larger fines and even imprisonment.

Most students attend school regularly and punctually. Regular attendance to school will avoid legal action being taken.

Students should aim for 100% attendance

The Department for Education states good attendance is 95% or above

Students below 92% attendance are monitored and under 90% classed as Persistent Absentees

80% attendance all through secondary school is equivalent to missing a whole year of education

Below 90% attendance gives students only a 27% chance of achieving their grades whatever their ability.

90% attendance sounds quite good BUT, 1 day off in 10 over 5 years equals 95 days, which is 19 weeks and equates to half a year!

365 days in a year, 190 school days per year + 175 non-school days per year

This gives you 175 days to spend on family time, holidays, visits, appointments, shopping, household jobs etc.

We encourage you to arrange routine dentist, opticians, doctors and orthodontist appointments outside of school hours or during the school holidays. Parents must provide evidence of the appointment for the absence to be authorised during school hours.

If your child needs to leave school during the school day, please email or call the attendance team with the full information. Students must sign out with the attendance office where they will be issued a pass to leave site. Students must also sign in with the attendance office when returning to school.

The Chase requires daily communication to cover absence from school and late arrival.

If your child is ill or if there is an urgent reason for non-attendance, please contact the school by 9.30am on each morning of absence. Please give the name, form and a full reason for absence. This can be done by the following methods:

By email: attendance@chase.worcs.sch.uk

By Phone: 01684 891961 option 1 for Years 7-11 and option 2 for Years 12-13

Reasons for absence: May we remind you that when phoning or messaging in for a student who is off school we need an actual reason for the absence. If you just tell us the student is ill/unwell/not well/poorly etc this will not be classed as an authorised absence.

Prolonged absence: You are required to contact us everyday by either phone or email if your child is not going to be in that day for illness or other reasons. After 5 days of continued absence the school will carry out a safe and well check as part of their safeguarding responsibility.

Issues at school

If you choose to keep your child out of school while issues are being resolved this may be classed as unauthorised absence. If you feel there is an issue that must be resolved before your child can attend you must contact the child’s Year Leader straight away so measures can be put in place.

Lateness

The school day starts at 8.40am with registration taking place at 8.45am in unit one. Any student who arrives after 8.45am is required to sign in at the Attendance office and will be receive a late mark. Students who arrive after 9.30am will have an unauthorised mark for the morning session, unless medical evidence is provided. The school day ends at 3.20pm.

Medical appointments – if your child has an urgent appointment that can not be taken out of school hours they will still be required to be in school both before and after the appointment where possible. If they are not in before/after their appointment this will be classed as unauthorised.

You must provide an appointment card/letter for the absence to be classed as medical otherwise it will be marked as late or unauthorised absence.

Being sent home – will only be authorised if the school has contacted parent or carer and advised that your child is being sent home/needs to be collected.

If your child calls you and you come and collect them this will not be authorised. Should your child call you please advise them that they should not be using their phone and they need to go to their teacher who will send them to the medical room. The medical room staff will assist and assess if the student needs to go home.

No phone policy – The Chase has a no phone policy and students should not be using their phones whilst at school.

A student is defined as ‘Persistent Absentee’ if they miss approximately 10% or more of all possible school sessions, regardless of whether the absence is authorised or not. These students will be monitored and the attendance team will have clear intervention strategies in place and work collaboratively with parents and other agencies in improving school attendance.

We take school absence very seriously. We identity students whose attendance drops below 95% and provide support and intervention to help improve this. It is important for parents or carers to work together with the school when a student is near the 10% persistent absence threshold.

Mental Health Difficulties/Mental Health

Unfortunately, mental health difficulties are becoming increasingly common in young people. The school can only authorise anxiety and mental health difficulties in students when they are receiving specialist support, this may be through CAMHS, Reach 4 Wellbeing, counselling or family support services. We cannot accept GP’s signing students off or just being told by a parent. If you need support and help with what to do please contact the attendance team or Year Leader for signposting. The school is here to support and has in house counselling and mentoring. However, waiting lists are long both in school and with NHS providers.  More information on the school’s Early Help offer can be found on the school website under the Care pages.

You will also find at the end of this pack supporting information on Mental Health with advice and resources. If your child is suffering with anxiety or their mental health is low it is important that you take them to the GP for discussion and referral.

Individual Health Care Plans

If your child has an Individual Health Care need, including diagnosed mental health, we require you to complete an Individual Health Care Plan from the school. This will include everything we need to know about your child’s medical condition so we can give them the correct care whilst in school. Forms are available from medical room or the school website. A meeting can be arranged for support in completing a plan or for more complex needs.

What is Medical Evidence?

If your child has low attendance or a significant amount of unauthorised absence you may be asked to provide medical evidence to authorise absence from school.

Medical evidence can be:

Prescription

Hospital Letter

Signed note from the GP or nurse

Medicine with prescribed sticker on it

Appointment card with name and date on it

If you are unsure please speak to a member of the attendance team for more information.