Attendance

The Importance Of Excellent Attendance

Excellent attendance is essential in order for pupils to get the most out of their experience at Pleckgate, including their academic progress, wellbeing and wider life chances. It is important for their personal health and wellbeing and will support them to form strong friendships within the school community. Pupils who attend school every day will have more opportunities to take part in curriculum enrichment activities, extra curricular experiences and school trips. To maintain excellent attendance from all of our pupils we will ensure that our school is a calm, orderly, safe, and supportive environment where all pupils want to be, are keen to attend and ready to learn.

Parental Responsibility

As a parent you have a legal duty to ensure your child attends school regularly. This means that your child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances, for example if your child is too ill to attend school.

When your child is away from school, the learning they miss will significantly have an effect on their future learning and can not ‘be made up’. For this reason we ask for your complete support in this matter. We monitor attendance carefully and we will inform you if your child’s attendance falls below 97%.

Educational research shows that attendance is directly linked to your child’s academic progress and poor attendance means that your child will not achieve as successfully if they are not in school.

For example, the overall absence rate of pupils not achieving grade 9 to 4 was over twice as high as those achieving grade 9 to 5 (8.8% compared to 3.7%). Research has also shown links between regular absence from school and extra-familial harm (including crime).

How We Can Support Your Child To Improve Their Attendance

If we have a concern that your child’s attendance has fallen below the expected standard, the next steps are as follows:

Below 97% – the attendance team will notify you of their concern and discuss the importance of excellent attendance
Below 95% – the pastoral team will request a meeting with you in school to discuss how to support you in improving your child’s attendance
Below 90% – this is classed as persistent absence and is a serious cause of concern. Your child’s Head of Year will request a meeting with you to discuss strategies to support improvements and your child’s attendance will be closely monitored. You may also receive a fixed penalty fine, if your child’s attendance does not improve

Punctuality To School

Pupils should arrive at their year group entrance to school no later than 8.20am. A breakfast club is open in the dining room from 8.00am. Please contact the school if you would like your child to attend. It is important that your child arrives punctually to school, as each day your child meets with their form tutor, who is the first point of contact for you and your child. If you have any concerns about your child, you should make contact with your child’s form tutor.

If your child is late to school we will inform you by email and they will receive a lunch time detention. If your child is late to school more than once that week or persistently late they will be kept for an after school detention on Friday 3.00-3.30pm (you will be informed of this 24 hours in advance).

Your child will also be placed on a punctuality report. Each teacher will sign and confirm that your child has arrived on time to lessons and your child will show you this report each day in order that we are working together to support your child.

Illness and Accident Procedures For Pupils

If you feel ill or have an accident at school, it is your responsibility to tell your teacher if you are in a lesson. A First Aider will come to your classroom and complete a medical assessment.

If it is break time or lunch time you must tell a member of staff on duty. All staff on duty wear hi-visibility yellow jackets, so they are easily identifiable on school grounds. A First Aider will come to your yard to assess you.

If you are unable to continue lessons your family will be contacted and asked to collect your from school. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you contact home yourself or leave school without prior permission or without notifying your head of year or a member of the pastoral team.

Leaving Site

All pupils must be on the school site at all times during the school day unless there is a specific reason for leaving. If you need to leave school to see the doctor or dentist (for example) you must bring a letter from your parent/carer. Ideally these appointments should be arranged outside of school hours. You will need to show this note to your teacher at the start of the lesson and then again at Reception when you leave. You will also need to sign out at Reception.

If you return to school from an appointment you must sign in at Reception before going to lessons. You should provide a note the day before for appointments which are first thing in the morning. If you cannot provide a note for attending an appointment or your parent/carer does not notify the school, your attendance may be unauthorised.