Absence & Attendance

Attendance and Attainment

At Saint Aidan’s, we expect all students to attend school every day.  This is because there is an undeniable link between attendance and attainment.  Students whose attendance is between 97% and 100% are in the best position to achieve the top grades in their GCSEs.  The students with the highest levels of attendance are almost five times more likely to achieve 5 GCSEs at grades 5-9 including English and Mathematics.  Only 35% of students whose attendance is lower than 90% gain 5 or more GCSEs including English and Mathematics.  It is not just attainment that benefits from good attendance; wellbeing and wider life chances also improve through being in school, every day.

Since the COVID pandemic, there has unfortunately been a decrease, nationally, in pupils’ attendance in schools. As a result, the Department of Education have published new statutory guidance that came into place from the start of the 2024-25 academic year.

The publication states that all parents and carers should:

• Ensure their child attends every day the school is open, except when statutory reason applies.
• Notify the school as soon as possible when their child is unexpectedly absent (e.g., sickness)
• Only request leave of absence in exceptional circumstances and do so in advance.

Book any medical appointments around the school day, where possible

Punctuality

Being punctual is just as important as good attendance.  When students arrive late, we find that they can start the day feeling more anxious and less engaged than they would if they had arrived on time.  We ask for your support to ensure that your child is on time and is able to quickly settle in to their day so that they are not disadvantaged in any way.

Daily Expectations

• All students should be on the school grounds by 8:30am at the latest, when a bell will sound for students to move to their Form Rooms.
• Students are registered in Form Rooms at 8:35am.
• If a student arrives late to school, but before the end of form time at 9am, they should go to their Form Room and register with their Form Tutor. They will be given a late mark (L) and the minutes late will be recorded.
• Students arriving after 9am should come to the School Reception and sign in. They will be given an unauthorised late mark (U) unless they have attended an appointment.  Medical evidence should be provided.
• School finishes at 3pm.

Student Absence Reporting

We appreciate that there are times when a child is unable to attend school, e.g. due to illness.

If your child is unavoidably not able to be in school, then please contact our Attendance team to let us know.  You can do this by Synergy, email or by phoning the school office on 01253 810504. You will be asked to provide a reason for your child’s absence.

For safeguarding reasons, a text message will be sent to parents and carers if a child is not in school, and we have not been informed of an absence.

Please ensure that you make contact with school for EVERY day your child is absent.

Any unreported absences will be recorded as unauthorised.

Everyone is unwell from time to time and this is sometimes unavoidable but having time off regularly due to illness is a cause for concern.  Having a cough, cold or being generally a bit unwell is not something that needs a day at home.  For persistent absence due to illness, we may ask for medical evidence in the form of appointment confirmation or copies of prescriptions.

Routine Appointments in School Time

Where possible appointments such as medical, dental and optician appointments should be arranged outside of school time.  If this is not possible, we expect your child to attend school before and after the appointment and we may ask for evidence of the appointment.

For last minute appointments, please contact school Reception to confirm if your child will be late arriving or leaving school during the day to attend a medical appointment.

For routine absences such as medical / dental appointments and funeral absences for up to one day, we ask that parents follow the procedure below:

When you are able to give 48 hours or more notice of your child’s absence from school then please contact school to let us know using Synergy or email (attendance@st-aidans.lancs.sch.uk).

Holidays in Term Time

Holidays during the school term (190 days) are not allowed. School holidays are the times when families should take holidays. It is a key role for parents, carers and school to encourage 100% attendance at school for every child. To grant a holiday in term time gives the message to the child that their school work and school life are not important and such a message can be very damaging.

It is a legal requirement for parents/carers to obtain the permission of the Headteacher before removing their child from school in order to take any leave in term time. Parents may be issued with a Penalty Notice (£160 per parent per child) if they do so without prior arrangement with the Headteacher.  During the last school year, pupils missed over 4,200 lessons because of their parents taking them on holiday.  Continuity of lessons is vital for all students in the school.

Leave of Absence

The law only allows the Headteacher to authorise extended leave in exceptional circumstances – such authorisation will be extremely rare. Parents/carers do not have an automatic right to take their children out of school for leave during term time.

To apply for a child to be granted leave from school parents should complete a Leave of Absence Request Form and return it to school for consideration at least 2 weeks in advance of the proposed leave and before committing to any expense.  Upon receipt of a request the Headteacher will make a decision as to whether or not to authorise the absence.  The form will then be returned to you for your records as evidence should you be challenged by an attendance/police officer during a truancy sweep.  Please note that the decision, in law, rests with the Headteacher and whilst the local authority apply any legal sanctions, it has no responsibility for the decision.

Determining factors: Leave of absence is granted at the sole discretion of the Headteacher and only in exceptional circumstances.  In judging whether to approve such requests, the following factors will be among those considered:

• Was the request submitted two weeks prior to the intended absence?
• Will leave at this point in time be detrimental to the student’s education?
• Will he/she miss any assessments or examinations?
• Is his/her attendance a cause for concern?
• Is the proposed absence during the month of September or any other transition period?
• Has he/she already had leave during term time?
• Does he/she have any absences which have been recorded as unauthorised this year?

Each request for leave of absence will be judged individually by the Headteacher. Cheap flights, parental holiday patterns, already having made a booking etc. will not be accepted as reasons to allow leave of absence.