Attendance
Attendance Information for Parents and Carers
We would like to extend a big thank you to all our City Academy parents and carers for supporting your children to attend school and engage so well with their learning during the last academic year. We know that this reflects the value our families place on children learning in school every day. We are looking forward to working with all our existing and new students and families in this new academic year, to support best attendance and learning.
At City Academy we want and expect our students to attend school every day, unless they are really not well enough to. We believe that children who attend school regularly are more likely to feel settled in school, maintain friendships, keep up with their learning and gain the greatest benefit from their education. Attending school on time every day also helps students form good habits which can stay with them throughout their educational journey and on into the workplace.
Attendance Policy
After 10 unauthorised absence sessions (a day is made up of 2 sessions AM/PM) within a 10-week period, a penalty notice warning letter will be sent to parents/carers. 10 unauthorised absence sessions could be comprised of 5 full days or 10 half days, including lateness after the register has closed. If there are 2 further unauthorised absences within a 10-week period a penalty notice application will be made.
Parents of students with poor attendance can expect to be asked to attend a meeting in school to discuss the reasons and agree a strategy to make improvements.
Return to school arrangements
The first day and week of term are very important in helping pupils to settle into school and the school routine. We know that children who attend every day during the first week of term are more likely to attend well over the year. They are also better settled into the changes that happen in new academic years, and therefore more readily able to access learning than those who miss out.
Support for your child in school
Please remember that we are here to help in any way we can. If you have any concerns about your child that you wish to discuss with us, please do get in touch. If we cannot help directly, we will work with you to help you find other support.
We can support your child best when they are in school and have outlined below some important information about attendance expectations at City Academy.
Arriving at school on time
Arriving at school on time is not only essential for the student’s own learning, it encourages habits of good timekeeping and lessens any possible classroom disruption. When a student arrives late, they miss important events like [assembly, teacher instructions and introductions]; this can seriously disadvantage them.
Students can arrive from 7:45am and access our free Breakfast Club.
- All students are expected to arrive at school in good time for the start of the school day at 8:40am.
- If a student arrives at school after 8:40am they will be marked on the register as late and given a late slip – they will be given a breaktime detention.
- If a student arrives very late after 9:10am, they will be marked with an unauthorised code for the morning session, and a 45-minute detention will be given after school.
Staff may ask to meet with parents/carers of students who arrive late to school, to discuss reasons for lateness and solutions to support them to attend on time.
% Attendance | Attendance group | Days attended in a year (195 days) | Days absent per year | Days absent per month | Total missed days during secondary school |
96% | Good Attendance | 187 | 8 | 1 | 40 days |
90% | Concern | 176 | 19 | 2 | Half a year |
80% | Chronic poor attendance | 156 | 39 | 4 | A whole year |
Less than 80% | Severe Chronic poor attendance | Less than 156 | More than 39 | More than 4 | More than a whole year |
Good attendance gives the best chance of success to our young people. School attendance is vitally important for students to achieve their full potential and days missed, even from year 7, can have a significant impact.
Illness
Students should attend school on every day the school is open, unless they are really not well enough to.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/
Minor ailments should not be a reason for staying at home. If your child attends school when feeling slightly under the weather, but feels worse during the school day, they can let a member of staff know and we will contact you to let you know if we think your child needs to go home. If you aren’t sure whether or not to send your child to school, please contact us on 0117 9542822 and we will be happy to support and advise where appropriate.
If your child is too ill to attend school, you must notify the academy before 8:40am on the first day of absence. If your child is ill for more than one day, you will need to notify the academy on each morning of the absence, unless otherwise agreed.
To report an absence, please contact the school by calling the absence line on 0117 9542822 or email [email protected] and [email protected]
Please clearly explain the symptoms your child has, when the symptoms started, and when you expect your child to be well enough to return to school.
By law, schools must record all [pupil/student] absences and whether the absence is authorised or unauthorised.
Medical/Dental Appointments
Please try to avoid medical and dental appointments in school time. If this is unavoidable, arrange appointments so that the minimum school time is lost. Unless it is an emergency appointment, parents/carers are expected to let the academy know about the appointment in advance. You should also provide evidence of the appointment, such as an appointment letter or card. Your child should still attend school for as much of the school day as possible.
Unexplained Absences
The academy will follow up any student absences where the parent/carer has not contacted us to explain why, or where we are unclear about the actual reason for absence.
Following up unexplained absences can take up a lot of school time, so please do ensure you contact the academy to avoid us having to do this. If you fail to notify us of the reason for your child’s absence, it will be recorded as unauthorised.
Where the academy has cause for concern about the actual reason for a student’s absence, staff may seek additional information or evidence from parents/carers regarding the absence, and/or make a home visit to verify the reason. If the reason cannot be verified and the academy has cause to believe the reason given may not be genuine, parents/carers may be asked to provide proof of the reason. If satisfactory proof is not provided, the academy may record the absence as unauthorised.
Unauthorised absences may result in a Penalty Notice or Prosecution.
Important reminder about Term Time Leave
As per current regulations and DfE advice on school attendance (2024) we would like to advise you that the Principal will not grant any Leave of Absence in term time unless exceptional circumstances exist. By exceptional we mean rare, significant, unavoidable and short. By unavoidable, we mean an event that could not reasonably be arranged at another time. Please see the new guidelines here for how fines will be applied for parents taking children out of school during term time.
For a Leave of Absence form, please click here.
Parents/carers are reminded that unauthorised term time leave may result in a Penalty Notice or Prosecution.
