Attendance
We expect all students to attend school every day. Regular, uninterrupted attendance secures the best possible learning outcomes for all students and we are committed to working in partnership with families to achieve this. Research shows that attendance has a direct link to academic achievement, and that students who are persistently absent perform on average 1.5 grades lower per subject at GCSE than their peers.
If we are concerned about your child's attendance:
We will contact you to discuss your child's attendance to offer support and continue to monitor it. If we do not see an improvement, we may invite you in for a meeting to discuss the barriers to your child attending school. We may also make a referral to the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer for further intervention.
Preventing your child from missing school: what you can do
- Make sure they understand the importance of good attendance and punctuality.
- Take an interest in their education - ask about school work and encourage them to get involved in school activities.
- Monitor your child's attendance through the Arbor parent portal.
- Discuss any problems they may have at school - inform their form tutor as appropriate.
- Don't them take time off school for minor ailments - particularly those which would not prevent you from doing daily activities.
- Arrange appointments and outings after school hours, at weekends or during school holidays. This will help to prevent disruption to your child’s education.
Attendance and the Law:
School attendance and absence: the law
The Education Act 1996 states that all children should attend school regularly and punctually. The Act states, "if a child of compulsory school age who is registered at a school fails to attend regularly at the school, his/her parent is guilty of an offence".
The government have launched new guidelines on school attendance. You can find a summary of these changes by clicking HERE
A copy of the Our Lady of Walsingham Trust Attendance policy can be found HERE
St Alban's Attendance Team
The attendance team are here to help and support you and your child to achieve excellent attendance at school. Our Attendance team is as follows:
Mrs M Power- Attendance Officer
Ms C Cook- Attendance Assistant
Mrs A Harries- Head of Safeguarding & Senior Leader in charge of Attendance
You can contact the attendance team via email at STAattendance@stalbans-staff.org or call 01473 726178 option 2 where you can leave a message and request a call back.
Punctuality
The school gates open from 8:15am and students should be in their form rooms, ready to learn at 8:45am. If a student arrives late after the start of the school day but within 10 minutes (before 8:55am), they will be registered as 'late'. If a student arrives between 8:45am and 9:05am, they will be registered as late and will receive a C2 Lunchtime Detention for the same day. If a student arrives after 9:05am, this will be marked as an unauthorised absence (U) and the student will receive a C3 Afterschool Detention for the same day. In line with our attendance policy and new government guidelines, 10 Unauthorised absences (U) in a 10 week rolling period may lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued.
If your child is absent due to illness
Please contact the school on the first day when a student is absent. Call 01473 726178 and select option 2. You must phone in every day that your child will not be attending. If we do not hear from you, your child's absent will be unauthorised (U). In line with our attendance policy and new government guidelines, 10 Unauthorised absences (U) in a 10 week rolling period may lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued.
Medical and other appointments
You must avoid arranging appointments for your child during the school day. However, if it is completely unavoidable, you must notify the school of the appointment details at least 48 hours in advance where possible. We will require confirmation evidence of all appointments within school time in the form of a letter or text.
Leaves of absence in term time
Term-time holidays are not authorised. Headteachers have no discretion to grant leave of absence during term time unless there are genuine exceptional circumstances. All requests for exceptional leaves of absence must be submitted via our request form by clicking HERE
The following link will take you to the local authority website. There you can find out more about support available from the local authority. You will also find contact details for the Educational Welfare Service.