Attendance

Purpose

This document is intended to illustrate the incentives, strategies and support we provide to ensure all our students benefit from a quality education formed around consistently good attendance. In certain situations, exceptional circumstances prevail that would require a course of action not detailed below, however, this document is intended as a guideline for all students at TKAT schools.

Strategy and Procedure

We measure attendance as a percentage of sessions attended, where a session is the morning or afternoon of a school day. That is, there are two sessions per day and ten sessions per week.

Attendance

100% The importance of good attendance, including punctuality, is communicated regularly to parents. Good attendance is celebrated and rewarded and schools have various incentives to encourage children to maintain good attendance.
96% The attendance target set by the school is 96%. Research clearly shows that pupils achieving at or above 96% attendance benefit from significantly better outcomes than pupils who fall below this level. When a child’s attendance falls below 96%, parents will be contacted, in writing, as an early alert that their child attendance may be close to falling below the expected 96%.
92%

Anything below 90% is defined as ‘persistent absence’ (Government directive). Pupils falling below this level of attendance are seen to be ‘persistently absent’, which will have a significantly negative effect on their education.

As such, parents of pupils falling below 92% attendance will be contacted, in writing, so they are aware their child’s attendance is of concern and is close to the persistent absence level of 90%. Parents may be contacted to attend an ‘Attendance concern’ meeting to outline targets and strategies than can support their child in improving their attendance at school.
90%

Pupils with attendance below the national floor target of 90% are considerably damaging their chances of success. Legislation states that the responsibility for a child’s attendance at school lies with the parent or guardian.

Parents will be required to attend an ‘Attendance concern’ meeting to outline targets and strategies than can support their child in improving their attendance at school.

If absence is due to medical reasons, the school may require further evidence before they authorise absence. This should be in the form of, but not limited to, a GP’s letter, an appointment letter, a dated prescription in the name of the pupil

In line with school policy, a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £60 per parent and per child may be issued by West Sussex County Council for persistent absence.

As a school, we understand there may be exceptional circumstances preventing a student from attending certain sessions. However, we would ask all parents to encourage their child to value the importance of attending school and to understand the impact this has on their future life choices.

If you would like further information or support on how best to support your child with their attendance, please feel free to contact the school and speak to your child’s Year Team Leader.

This family have been fined for taking their children out of school for a holiday during term time. It is a serious issue and fines will be issued for failure to send your children to school. Read the report here.

You can find our attendance policy on the policies page.

Please remember, we are all working towards the same aim, to help your child do the best s/he can at school. To do this s/he needs to be here. If there are reasons why attendance is difficult which we need to know about to fully understand your situation then please let us know. We can’t help if we don’t know.