Dear Parents/ Carers,
I hope you have enjoyed the half-term break.
The attendance of students at school is the single most important factor in the students being successful in their education.
We look to provide all of our students with an education that allows them to flourish both now and in the future. Our students make exceptional progress in their education. This is reflected in exam outcomes and in the performance of our students across so many areas of the curriculum; sport, music, drama and public speaking. But this progress is dependent on the students being present in their lessons.
The difference in the progress made by students who attend over 95% of the time and those who don’t is dramatic. The students with the strong attendance make over a grade additional progress per subject, as against those with below 95%. Those who do not attend well make progress only in line with national average. The benefit of Central Foundation education depends on the students being present in lessons with our exceptional teachers.
Given the importance of school attendance, we would ask you to do all that you can to ensure that the students attend. Of course, if the student is very unwell they should stay at home and rest; but otherwise, even if they are feeling under the weather, the student should attend school.
We will be providing a letter to all parents setting out the attendance and other pastoral indicators in Half Term 3. If we have attendance concerns the students are allocated to three different stages.
Stage 1 – Under 95% attendance
We will ask you to consider with us the actions that can be taken to improve attendance and to address the learning gap created by the high absence rate.
Stage 2 – A Stage 1 student whose attendance has not improved over the following 4 weeks
We will meet with you to discuss further the reason for non-attendance and complete a plan for bringing about the improvement that is necessary.
Stage 3 – A student whose attendance is under 85%
A detailed plan will be produced to address the reasons for the low attendance and we will meet at three weekly intervals to review the progress against the plan.
We will consider at this point the intervention of third parties, such as social services, to provide support for improving the attendance.
Requests for absences during term time
Requests for leave of absence during term time are very rarely granted and requests for holidays during term time are never authorised. This is because we know the impact that any absence has on the education of the student.
As a school we have a safeguarding duty to ensure that we are aware of the reason for a student’s absence. If a student is travelling abroad the school is required to have the full details of that journey for the school to comply with its safeguarding duties. If we are not provided with these details we are required to inform the local authority of the absence and the fact we do not have sufficient evidence of the student’s location.
As a school we are so grateful for the support that our families provide to the students and the school. We are committed to continuing to provide an exceptional education – both inside and outside of the classroom for the students and to ensuring that all of our students are present in those lessons to reap the full benefit of that education.
Best wishes,
Mr Brownhill
Headteacher