Attendance PDF Print E-mail

Attendance Levels

97% SDCC Target for student attendance 2012 - 2013.
90% Equates to your child missing half a day a week.

Every Week

80% Equates to your child missing 1 day a week – or a whole year’s education over the course of their secondary schooling!

Achievement

Missing just 17 days in one year (90%) can cause a drop of a full grade at GCSE. Only about one in four students with attendance less than 90% achieve 5 A*-C GCSEs. Only about one in ten students with less than 80% attendance achieve 5 A*-C GCSEs And achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs can increase wages by 42%

Timings

Please ensure you know the dates of the school year, a printable calendar is available on the school web site – or phone for a copy. We cannot authorise absences where parents forget a term date, or when students provide incorrect information to parents.

8.40 - School starts with morning registration, it is essential your child attends all of this period daily.
3.00 - School finishes, we will never release your child early without contacting you

Stoke Damerel Procedures

Our electronic registration system means that we can register students to every lesson. We will check your child’s attendance regularly and will contact you should we have any concerns. · We aim to contact by SMS text the parent/carer of any child not present in school each day and for whom we have not had a telephone call explaining their absence · Please ensure we have your current address · Please ensure we have a daytime contact number at all times so that we can contact you in case of concern or any emergency involving your child

Education Welfare Service

If attendance drops below 85% we will refer your child to the Education Welfare Service as a measure of concern as, if attendance drops below 85%, your child will be classified as a Persistent Absentee under DfE guidleines and the Education Welfare Service may consider prosecution · If your child gains 10 unauthorised absences (2 per day) the LEA may consider the issuing of a £50 penalty notice against the parent after a further absence · Both the Education Welfare Officer, Parent & Family Liaison Worker and our own Parent Support Adviser can offer support and guidance with regards to attendance

School Trips/Sporting Events

Trips and School sporting events are classed as ‘Educational Activity’ and count as attendance.
 
Absence PDF Print E-mail

Absence

Please note that absence from school can only be authorised by the Principal of the School. Parents cannot authorise absence. Absence from school will only be authorised on the following grounds:

Illness

We will authorise absence on receipt of a phone call from the parent/carer to our Absence Line – 01752 284221 as long as attendance remains acceptable. The Absence Line has an answerphone and messages can be left 24 hours a day. We ask that you phone daily and should your child be absent for more than 3 days will expect some form of evidence of the seriousness of their illness/condition on return.

This evidence should be a note from a GP or copy of a prescription. You should send your child to school on any day that they do not have a temperature, diahorrea or vomiting. We have a highly experienced 1st Aider who will contact you should we consider your child is unfit to remain at school. We will administer any medicines which your child requires at the appropriate times and will hold them securely.

The fact that your child is on a course of antibiotics is not a satisfactory reason, on its own, for keeping your child away from school. Should we have concerns regarding the amount of time your child is absent due to illness we may refer them to the Education Welfare Service or the School Nurse Service. In extreme cases the Principal may decide not to authorise any further absence on medical grounds, in this case all absence will be unauthorised.

Medical Appointments

We expect medical appointments to be arranged for after school, or if necessary as close to the end of the school day as possible, but appreciate that this is not always possible and that students may have to attend appointments at other times, however we will authorise only half a day’s absence for appointments. Students should bring a note or appointment card to show their tutor who will sign the note as authority for the student to use to book out at reception. Only reception will change the register to authorise the absence (this confirms the student is no longer on site in case of an emergency evacuation).

Holiday

The Principal may authorise up to 10 days absence during term time during an academic year. However this absence must be requested well in advance and will only be granted if your child’s attendance record is good, their work is up to date and there are no important events during the period. Requests for absence should be made to the Attendance Manager in writing, we will respond in writing.

Due to an increase number of exams held throughout the academic year and the large number of controlled assessments which take place over the whole year we are no longer able to authorise any holiday for Years 9, 10 and 11.

Religious Observance

Please phone the Attendance Office should your child need to be absent from school for reasons of religious observance.

Birthdays

Please note we will not authorise absence from school for birthdays.
 


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