Parent information
Attendance
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​A school year is very short. It has only 180 days for students. This leaves 175 days for holidays and activities at home. A school week is also very short. Most students spend 7 to 7½ hours at school on each of the five days they attend during term time. This means only approximately one third of a school day is spent in school. Most of the day and the week is spent at home. Time in school is precious. Absence from school and lateness to school can have a negative effect on a student’s educational progress, achievement and employment prospects. Therefore, daily attendance and excellent punctuality is our goal for all students, in line with our mission statement ‘Achievement for All’. Students must be in school when they are expected to be.
To ensure that absence is kept to a minimum and that all non-urgent appointments are made outside of school hours. It is appreciated that this can be difficult, however pupils finish at 2.25pm on Thursday and Friday which does allow most of Thursday and Friday afternoons for non-urgent appointments.
There are 180 days in the school year
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Attend today,
Achieve tomorrow.
​Although good attendance is expected, we do reward students for full and improved attendance. We have termly certificates and prize draws for students as well as class and year group incentives. We have an annual Attendance Award Ceremony where we celebrate excellent attendance in school. We hope you will be able to join with us next year because your daughter has attended school every day in Year 8!
Key Reasons to Attend:​
Every month the students are made aware of their attendance percentage and number of days missed. The students discuss this with their Form Tutor and decide whether it is on target or in need of improvement using the idea of traffic lights. They note their attendance information in their Student Planner. What surprises some students and also parents is that 90% attendance is not good; as it would be in a test or assessment!