Why does Attendance matter?

There is a clear link between poor attendance at school and lower academic achievement, in a nutshell – how can our children learn if they are not here?

• Of pupils with absence over 50%, only 3% manage to achieve five or more GCSE’s at grades A*- C including Maths and English
• a child who is absent a day of school per week misses an equivalent of two years of their school life
• poor examination results limit young people’s options and poor attendance suggests to colleges and employers that these students are unreliable
• poor school attendance is also closely associated with crime - a quarter of school age offenders have truanted repeatedly

What we are doing?

At Goresbrook School we are working hard to identify early concerns and issues which may be affecting your child’s attendance.

• we continuously promote the importance of good attendance throughout the school
• we have robust monitoring processes in place
• we ensure extensive support is offered to those who experience difficulties with punctuality and/or attendance
• we issue termly attendance updates for parents/carers.

Attendance Monitoring Procedure

Reporting Absence

You must notify the school by 8am if your child is unable to attend. The school should be updated on each and every day of absence.

Important: Parents/Carers wishing to report absences over the phone must do so via the Pupil Absence Line as detailed below.

Please do not call the mobile number between 8am and 10am unless your call is of an urgent nature. Examples of an urgent nature are:

• Parents/carers worried about their child’s welfare i.e. if they arrived to school
• Any Child Protection issue

On return to school you will need to provide a signed letter or complete a Return to School form, these are the orange forms which can be found in the Parent Information Area at Main Reception and are also available at Secondary Reception. Please be reminded that absences of more than 2 days require medical evidence such as a copy of prescription and/or an appointment card.

Lates Procedure

Primary pupils should arrive to school for a 9am start. Arriving between 9.01am and 9.30am will result in a late mark. Arriving after 9.30am will be recorded as Late After Register Closes, this mark is equivalent to an absence.

Secondary pupils should arrive to school for an 8am start. Arriving between 8.01am and 8.30am will result in a late mark. Arriving after 8.30am will be recorded as Late After Register Closes. Secondary pupils arriving to school late, will be issued a Re-Routing session for the same day. Parents/carers will be notified of the re-routing by email. Students are required to attend the Re-Routing session, only students who have pre-arrange absences such as medical appointments will be allowed to postpone the session.

Medical Appointment

As per our Attendance & Punctuality policy, we ask that medical appointments are made outside of school hours where possible; where this is not possible, the school require at least 2 days notice for all medical appointments excluding emergency appointments. You must inform the school of any emergency appointments in the first instance.

How Medical Absence Affects Attendance Rewards

All absences, whether authorised or not will affect a child’s overall attendance percentage.

If your child is absent from school due to a medical appointment, they will not achieve 100% attendance for that week and therefore will not receive a reward as a result of the absence.

The only children who are exempt from this, are those who have lifelong/long-term medical conditions* which requires them to attend hospital appointments. In order to receive an attendance reward, the following criteria must be met:

• A pupil has a lifelong/long-term* medical condition which requires them to attend hospital appointments
• A pupil has hospital appointments that they need to attend and there is no flexibility as to the time and date of these hospital appointments
• A pupil has medical evidence that they have hospital appointments they need to attend and a copy of the evidence is given to school in advance of the appointment
• A pupil attends school before and after the hospital appointment where possible (at the discretion and judgement of the Attendance and Welfare Officer)
• The hospital appointment is pre-planned and scheduled in advance. It is part of the on-going treatment/monitoring of the medical condition
• Emergency hospital appointments in response to an unexpected issue that has arisen do not count in this exception to the issuing of rewards

*A medical condition that will require more than one academic year of treatment

Please note: GP appointments will not be taken into consideration

What does our attendance say about our school?

The recent Ofsted report notes “Attendance is slightly above average in both the primary and secondary sections.” This demonstrates how Goresbrook provides a stimulating and enjoyable environment for our children and that most importantly; the children want to be here.

As parents and carers, we ask that you continue to support us in promoting the importance of good attendance by ensuring your child attends school regularly.