Attendance

Attendance and punctuality are crucial to students being successful throughout their education journey. Our expectations are that students’ attendance will be at least 97% and that parents will support the school by not arranging holidays, events or where possible, appointments during school time. The school is unable to sanction any leave from school except in exceptional circumstances.

As you will know, it is a legal duty of parents to ensure good, regular attendance and to explain any absences.

Our school day starts at 8:35am, all students are expected to be in their tutor room for this time, and our school day ends at 3pm.

Reporting Absence

If your child is going to be absent, please inform the school by the Arbor App, email, or telephone each day of absence before 8.30am.

We will require the following information: 

• Students name

• Tutor group

• Reason for absence (the more detail the better – unwell, poorly, illness unfortunately are not enough information), not all reasons for absence will be authorised.

The Arbor App https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/sections/201716749-Parent-Portal-and-App-Getting-started-and-logging-in (link if you haven’t already got it set up)

or

The attendance email  attendance@cheslynhay.windsoracademytrust.org.uk 

or

The absence line number is  01922 416024 Option 1

If we do not receive any contact, parents/carers will automatically receive a text message requesting them to contact school with the above information.  The absence will be unauthorised and we may request supporting evidence to authorise if still no contact is made.   If a student's attendance goes below 90% we may unauthorise and ask for supporting evidence for each additional absence to enable us to authorise. Unauthorised absences can result in a fine if a student receives 10 or more unauthorised sessions.

Lateness

If students arrive late to school between 8:35am to 8:55am they must go to their tutor to get their attendance mark, if they arrive after 8:55am then they must sign in at reception before accessing school stating the reason for being late.

Students arriving through our main pedestrian gate after 8:35am, without a valid reason reported by parent / carer to school, will receive a break time detention.

A student will be marked late (L) with minutes if they are late to tutor.  If they arrive to school after 9:05am they will get an unauthorised late (U) which has an impact on their attendance percentage and can result in a fine if they receive 10 or more U’s.

If a student is late due to a medical appointment their attendance is still affected as they are authorised as a M (medical) code and then will receive a present mark for each lesson they attend.

Illness in School 

If students are unwell in school, they must let their teacher know, then go to our student reception, where one of our first aiders will assess if they are able to stay in school or contact needs to be made with home.  We strive for students to stay in school if they are well enough. There are exceptions to this at times.

In all cases the student must make the class teacher aware that they are feeling unwell so the appropriate action can be taken. 

Please be aware if a student contacts home without seeing our staff first and someone collects them, their absence will be unauthorised. Parents who turn up without being contacted by school will be asked to show ID to confirm their identity so we can check it against our Arbor information.

Appointments 

Please make sure if your child has an appointment during the school day that you notify the school in advance, via the Arbor App, email, or telephone with the following information – 

Students name 

Tutor group

Date and time of appointment

Nature of the appointment

Confirmation text, letter, etc. from practice, hospital, clinic or establishment.  

This enables us to put a note of the appointment on Arbor so teaching staff are aware, we also do an ‘Off School Premises Permission’ slip at reception.  The student can then come to reception and sign out once a parent/carer comes to collect. 

Medical appointments can affect a student’s attendance if it is first thing in the morning or if a student leaves during lunchtime.  Ideally, please make appointments after school or during school holidays.  If this is not possible, try and make the appointment as close to the end of the day (after 2pm) as you can or so they can leave and return to school by 1.15 and reduce the disruption to learning.

If an appointment must be set in school time, absence will only be authorised for a reasonable margin of time depending on locality e.g . local GP/dentist should only need a minimum amount of time to visit but orthodontic treatments, hospital clinic appointments may take longer.  

Leave of absence

Amendments to the Education Regulations 2006 make it clear that head teachers can only grant a leave of absence (funerals. holidays, sporting activity, regulated performance, etc) during term time if there are exceptional circumstances to justify this. 

Parents/carers must either request Leave of Absence via email attendance@cheslynhay.windsoracademytrust.org.uk or by filling in the Leave of Absence form as far in advance as possible, especially if you feel there are exceptional circumstances for the headteacher to take into consideration.

Unauthorised Leave of Absence may be subject to a Penalty Notice this is in line with Staffordshire County Councils Code of Conduct and the “Working Together to Improve School attendance” statutory guidance (effective 19th August 2024). The penalties for unauthorised leave of absence in term time will be:

For a First offence the Penalty Notice fine would be: -

• £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, rising to

• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 21-28 days.

For a Second offence within 3-years of the first penalty notice being issued, the penalty notice fine would be:

• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 28 days.

Following the second offence every new offence within the 3-year period, will be prosecuted under S444.1 of the Education Act 1996.  If the prosecution takes place, the maximum fine is £1,000 per parent, per child.