Attendance
Attendance Officers:
Attendance Officer: Mrs. C Smith
Post 16: Mrs A. Buckley
Absence Line Contact Details:
There may be times when your child has to miss school. If your child is ill, contact the school on each day of your child’s illness stating their name, tutor group and full details of their absence. Stating a child is “sick, unwell or poorly” is not accepted as we need the full reason to provide to the local authority. You will be contacted by the Attendance Office if your child is absent from school without notice.
To advise your child will be absent from school or late, please contact us by 8.30am in one of the following ways:
- by text to 07860 054357
- by email to attendance@belfairsacademy.org.uk
- by phone to leave a voicemail – 01702 509000 (option 1)
- for Post 16 students please dial for extension 205
Attendance Policy:
Academy procedures for addressing poor attendance:
We will address poor attendance of a student in the following ways:
Attendance Concern
If a student’s attendance drops below 95% a letter will be sent to you confirming your child’s attendance and advising of the need for the attendance to improve.
If no improvement is recorded then the following intervention stages are triggered:
Attendance Concern Letter:
When a student’s attendance falls below 95%, a letter will be sent to you advising you that future absences will be subject to providing medical evidence to support the absence.
Level 1:
If the attendance continues to fall below 92% (Persistent Absence Threshold) you will be contacted to attend a meeting with the Attendance Officer. A plan/set of strategies will be put in place to encourage good attendance as a supportive measure.
Level 2:
If there is still no improvement, you will be contacted to attend a meeting with a member of the Senior Leadership Team. If all interventions are unsuccessful, you will be invited to attend a review panel meeting. This meeting will include a member of the Early Help, Family Support and Youth Offending Services and a member of the governing body. At this meeting, a final warning letter will be given with a view to issuing you with a fixed penalty notice.
Post 16:
Attendance at Post 16 is calculated on attendance to timetabled lessons. Please speak to Mrs Buckley if you have any queries.
Persistent Absence:
The threshold for Persistent Absence- as defined by the DfE – is 90% attendance.
The chart below shows how many sessions/days absent a child needs to accrue to have 90% attendance in school time:
| Term Dates | PA = 90% Sessions per term | PA=90% Days per term |
| Term 1 – Sept to Oct | 7 Sessions | 3.5 days absence |
| Term 2 – Nov to Dec | 14 Sessions | 7 days absence |
| Term 3 – Jan to Feb | 20 Sessions | 10 days absence |
| Term 4 – Feb to April | 25 Sessions | 12.5 days absence |
| Term 5 – May to June | 31 Sessions | 15.5 days absence |
| Term 6 – June to July | 38 Sessions | 19 days absence |
Medical Evidence:
At times it is necessary for us to request medical evidence from parents to allow us to authorise their children’s absence from school. Please see below a guide to what is accepted as Medical Evidence:
- GP/Dental appointment card with date of appointment attended.
- Medical Appointment letter.
- Empty prescribed medication packet with dispensing label attached.
- Copy of prescription.
- White return page of prescription ie; repeat prescription request.
- Medical letter* from GP or medical professional advising student is unfit to attend school.
- Medical Certificate*.
- Compliment slip* from a Nurse at student’s medical practice confirming they are unfit to attend school.
*Medical Certificates from online GP services will not be accepted. Certificates must be produced from your local GP that you are registered with. They must have physically seen your child and deemed them unfit for school.
Please note that it is the Parent’s/Carer’s responsibility to provide the medical evidence when requested by the school.
The school will not request or chase up medical evidence from GP’s/Consultants/Dentists etc.
Medical appointments – We ask that medical appointments such as Dental, Doctor, Orthodontist and Hospital appointments should be outside of school hours. Should this not be possible, we expect the students to attend school beforehand and to return to school once the appointment has concluded.
Holiday Request or Exceptional Circumstances:
Pupils are expected to attend every session available to them throughout the school year.
Under section 7 of the education Act 1996, there is no entitlement for you to take your child on holiday during term time. You may be fined for taking your child on holiday during term time without consent of the Academy.
Should parents wish to make an application for a child’s absence, they should complete an Absence Request Form, available from the Academy reception. This form asks parents to explain the reason for the intended absence and details of the exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances are defined as “rare, significant, unavoidable and short”. The Principal will consider the circumstances for absence and confirm in writing whether the absence will be marked authorised or unauthorised on the student’s attendance record. Each request will be judged on a case by case basis. If an event can be reasonably scheduled outside of term-time then it would not be normal to authorise absence for such an event – holidays are therefore not considered ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Should the absence be unauthorised and you choose to take the unauthorised leave from the school, then the case may be referred to the Local Authority. They may choose to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice to you.
For more information on fines, please click on the link below.
Punctuality:
What happens if my child is late for school?
Should your child arrive to school after 8.40am then they will receive a “late” mark on their attendance record for morning registration. An accumulation of 2 late marks in the period of a week (Thursday to Thursday) will result in a 75 minute Friday detention with Mr Stalham.
Should your child punctuality not improve over a period of time, your child will be placed on a Punctuality Report and a meeting with parents will be scheduled.
If your child arrives half an hour after the register closes, they will be marked with a “U” code showing that they arrived after the start of the first lesson. The “U” code is an unauthorised absence code and will be used unless sufficient evidence is received regarding the absence i.e. medical evidence. This code will affect your child’s overall attendance percentage. Students will however be marked in for each individual lessons they attend for fire regulation purposes.
Sending work home:
Sending work home when my child is absent from school
It is extremely important that you communicate with the academy should your child be absent from school for a defined period of time. Once the circumstances for the absence have been discussed, we will inform your child’s Progress Leader and ensure work is sent home for completion where appropriate.