Attendance and Punctuality

As a school we aim to ensure that all our pupils access an education which meets their needs and allows them to realise their full potential. We will work with families to ensure all pupils attend regularly and punctually. We will challenge families that give a low priority to attendance and punctuality. We fully appreciate that all our families have different situations and as a school we want parents/carers to work with us so we can provide you with any support you need.

• We expect children to be in school on time and ready to learn at 8.35am.
• If your child is going to be absent from school, you must ALWAYS inform us (by 9.00am where possible) including a reason for the absence. Please telephone the school office on 01274 564879, or email [email protected]
• The school gates close at 8.40am, any child arriving at the school office after this time will receive a late mark.
• If children arrive after 9.05am, this will be marked at an ‘unauthorised late’. which is the same as an ‘unauthorised absence’.
• To avoid unnecessary absences, regular doctors and dentist appointments must be made outside school hours (where possible). If this is not possible, we require medical evidence.
• If a pupil is absent at morning registration without contact from a parent/carer to explain the absence, the school will contact parents/carers for a reason.
• If there is still no contact with parents/carers, the attendance team may carry out a home visit to ascertain the reasons for absence and confirm there are no safeguarding issues. Until school is provided with a valid reason for your child’s absence, this will be an unauthorised absence.
• Where a student’s absence is cause for concern, the school will write to parents or carers and invite them into school in accordance with our Graduated Attendance Strategy.

We encourage good school attendance and want to work with families to support this by:

• Informal meetings with families to discuss barriers to attendance
• Ensuring we understood the pupil’s views and any worries they may have about coming to school
• Offering Early Help Support
• Offering Medical Support e.g. sleep, asthma, anxiety etc
• Formal monitoring periods where targets for attendance are given
• Formal attendance contracts
• Formal meetings and attendance panels
• Referral to the Attendance Improvement Officer (Education Safeguarding Team)

If there are still no improvements your case could be passed on to the Local Authority for possible prosecution in either the Family or Magistrates court. Bradford Council will always try to work with schools, parents/carers and pupils to improve pupil attendance, but will issue Penalty Notices where a pupil has missed at least 6 sessions (3 school days) due to unauthorised absence in the last 6 weeks.

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Gates open at 8.30am and close at 8.40am. School begins at 8.35am when the register is taken. If your child arrives after registration they will receive a late mark. After 9.05am your child will be marked as an unauthorised, and the whole session will be classed as an unauthorised absence.

We understand that sometimes children might be late for unforeseen circumstances, and you will bring your child in through the office if you are late. Please let us know if you think you are going to be late.

When children are regularly late, they can feel embarrassed walking into a classroom that has already begun learning and they can feel upset or distressed if this is happening regularly. Please contact the school if you are struggling to get here on time.

To support families to get children to school on time we can offer:

Breakfast Club – From 7.30am daily, families can drop children at the main office for breakfast club.

Unfortunately, holidays will not be authorised for our pupils (unless in exceptional circumstances) as the lessons they miss will have a detrimental effect on their progress and academic success.

Families taking children on holiday in term time must fill in a Leave of Absence Request form. This is so we know the whereabouts of pupils when they are not in school.

If families choose to take an unauthorised leave of absences in term time, then families are at risk of a £60 per child per parent fine from Bradford Council. In a 12 month period, if there are two or more incidents of unauthorised absence or if four or more weeks of unauthorised leave is taken, Bradford Council may start legal proceedings which could be a fine of £2,500 per child per parent, a criminal record and/or a custodial sentence of up to 3 months.