Designated Safeguard Lead
Blog
ParentPayAttendance and Punctuality
Parents and carers have a huge impact on student attendance and we appreciate your support. In line with DfE guidance, if a student is going to be absent for any reason, parents must call the school before 8.30am. No other method of informing us will be acceptable as part of our safeguarding procedure.
In the unlikely event that a student is absent from school and the parent/ carer has not let us know, we will send a text message. If we are not contacted in response to the text, we will follow our safeguarding procedures.
If you feel there is anything that may be affecting your child’s attendance, please contact the school as soon as possible. As a school, we are always happy to try and help with any attendance issues.
We recommend you keep an eye on your child’s attendance percentage via the Arbor app. The Arbor App is the mobile version of our Parent Portal, for use on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Parents can download the Arbor App for free from either the Play store for Android phones or the App Store for IOS. If you have any questions or queries regarding the App then please feel free contact the school (l.thompson@towers.school).
Please do not message the school via Arbor. Use the details below.
Please call 01233 634171 to report your child's absence, on every day they are absent.
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Senior Attendance Officer (Year 10 and 11) |
Tracey Epps Ext 258 |
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Attendance Officer (Year 7, 8 and 9) |
Claire Saxby Ext 242 |
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Sixth Form Attendance (Year 12 and 13) |
Option 1 followed by Option 3 |
Absence due to illness
At certain times of year, illness is inevitable. However, it is important that absence due to illness is minimised. Click here to view the NHS guidance about when to keep a child off school, to help inform whether your child should attend school when unwell.
If your child is too unwell to be in school, we must receive notification before 8:30am that your child will be absent from school. This enables us to accurately check registers. In the unlikely event that your child is absent from school and you have not let us know, we will send a text message.
We require notification of absence for every day that your child is absent for illness.
Absence due to medical and other appointments
Please make every effort to make appointments out of school time. If you cannot avoid a school time appointment, you will need to request permission to take your child out of school. Please provide notice prior to the appointment and present your appointment letter, card or text as supporting evidence so we can ensure the correct code for your child's absence is recorded.
Punctuality
Students should be punctual to school; they should aim to get to school at 8.30am to give them time to get to their first lesson which starts punctually at 8.40am. The canteen is open from 7.30am and serves a variety of breakfast options from 8:00am. All students can have free toast before school.
If a student arrives after the register has closed then this will negatively affect their overall percentage. Students' punctuality to school is monitored in the same way as their attendance.
Lateness = lost learning
- 5 minutes late each day 3 days lost
- 10 minutes late each day 6.5 days lost
- 15 minutes late each day 10 days lost
- 20 minutes late each day 13 days lost
- 30 minutes late each day 19 days lost
Application for Term Time Leave
If you need to request term time leave, please complete the application for term time leave form and return to the attendance officer. We will review these case by case and come back to you with a decision. All requests for leave of absence should be made in advance.
Please download and print the following:
Application for Term Time Leave
Why does attendance matter?
The government is clear that parents or carers must make sure that their children get a full-time education that meets their needs.
Attendance at school is fundamental to academic success. It is a basic truth that students cannot learn what they are not there to learn. It is also important for students' wellbeing, social relationships and their wider development.
There are obvious exceptions to both sides of the rule. There are a very few students deemed academically successful who also have attendance issues and a few students who struggle academically who are always present. However, in most cases, strong attendance correlates with strong academic performance. Strong attendance is generally taken to be attendance of above 96%. Below 96% lack of attendance will have a negative impact on school success.
Here’s what the data shows:
- There is a steady decrease in KS4 achievement as overall absence rates increase.
- Pupils who were persistently (90% and less) or severely absent (50% and less) had lower levels of attainment at the end of KS4 than other pupils.
- Students with attendance of lower than 77% do not tend to gain any GCSEs.
- Those with attendance lower than 88% tend to sacrifice a grade in each subject because of lack of attendance.
- Among pupils with no missed sessions over KS4, 83.7% achieved grades 9 to 4 in English and maths compared to 35.6% of pupils who were persistently absent.
- Of those pupils who were persistently absent, 35.6% achieved grade 9 to 4 in English and maths. Among severely absent pupils, this figure was 11.3%. This compares to 83.7% of pupils with no missed sessions and 76.3% who missed between 1 and 5%
The table below shows how the number of days absent works out as a percentage of total days in school in an academic year.
- 1 day off a month = 2 weeks missed at school each year
- 17 days off school each year = 1 Grade lower at GCSE
|
Attendance % |
Absence % |
Days Absent in a Year |
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100 |
0% |
0 |
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97 |
3% |
6 |
|
95 |
5% |
10 |
|
90 (PA: persistent absentee) |
10% |
19 |
|
85 |
15% |
29 |
|
80 |
20% |
38 |
|
50 (SPA: severe persistent absentee) |
50% |
95 |
Material to help
The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. Click here to view the ‘Everything you need to know about school attendance’ information site.
What is a Persistent Absentee?
A student whose attendance is below 90%, whatever the reason, is classed by the Department of Education as being a persistent absentee. Even if the school understands the reason for the absence and is authorising the absence, then the school may still have to request evidence for any future absences.
In some situations, the school will not authorise absence as the student could have and should have been present in school. If the unauthorised absence becomes significant, we will first do everything we can to establish the reason for this and support your child and you as a family to make sure that there are no barriers to a student attending school.
If, once the school has exhausted all possible avenues for support, there has been no improvement in attendance the school will seek advice and further support from the Kent Attendance Service (PIAS). Kent Attendance will first seek to support, but also have the power to issue fines and support the issuing of court orders should the situation justify these more extreme measures.
Penalty Notices
IMPORTANT CHANGES TO THE LAW REGARDING PENALTY NOTICES FOR UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS IN TERM TIME) FROM SCHOOL
We need to bring to your attention that a new National Framework for Penalty Notices for school absence, including unauthorised holiday absence, is being introduced following changes to the law. These new Government regulations will come into effect from the 19th of August 2024.
What are the changes?
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There will be a new national threshold of 10 unauthorised sessions for any reason
(equivalent to 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period;
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The first time this threshold is met, a penalty notice will be issued. The amount of the fine will be £80 (currently £60) per parent, per child if paid within 21 days. If the fine is not paid by the first 21 days, it will rise to £160 (currently £120) if paid within 28 days of being issued. Any non-payment of the Penalty Notice may be referred to the Magistrates Court;
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If within three years, the threshold is met for a second time, the fine will automatically be triggered at the higher rate of £160 per parent, per child. There will be no option to pay the lower rate of £80;
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If the threshold is met for a third time in a 3-year rolling period, a Penalty Notice will not be issued. Instead, the case will be presented straight to the Magistrates Court under s.444 of the Education Act (1996) where fines of up to £2500 per parent, per child can be ordered.
Further information on how the new rules may affect you can be found by visiting.
https://www.gov.uk/government/
Please also see the attachment for a simple chart which shows you a representation of the same information.
For your information, schools do not receive the money from penalty notice fines.
Attendance policy
Please click to view our attendance policy
Sixth Form Attendance
Absence due to illness
If for any reason you are not able to attend school, your parent/carer should inform the school by phone on the first day of absence, ideally before 8.30am, and every day thereafter. You should also email your teachers and ask them to send you the work.
Absence due to medical appointments
Please do not make routine doctors, dental or other appointments during the school day.. For medical appointments that cannot be arranged outside of school hours, we will need proof of the appointment (i.e appointment card or letter).
Absence due to driving lessons
Driving lessons must not be arranged during lessons, PD or supervised study periods
Monitoring attendance
If your attendance drops below 90%, you will be monitored on our attendance cycle. We will put in the necessary supportive steps to help you to improve your attendance. A sub 90% attendance limits your chance of success and will make it harder for you to make significant progress in your GCSE, BTEC or A Level courses.
Reporting non-attendance
01233 634171 and select option 1 followed by option 3: or email 6th@towers.school
Punctuality
Good punctuality at school is essential for students to achieve their full educational potential. It is also vital for students to form good habits for later life. Punctuality records form part of references passed onto employers or higher educational institutes.
All students are expected to arrive punctually for school in the morning and to arrive punctually for each lesson.
Lateness = lost learning
- 5 minutes late each day 3 days lost
- 10 minutes late each day 6.5 days lost
- 15 minutes late each day 10 days lost
- 20 minutes late each day 13 days lost
- 30 minutes late each day 19 days lost
Students should be punctual to school; they should aim to get to school at 8.30am to give them time to get to their first lesson which starts punctually at 8.4oam. The canteen is open from 7.30am and serves a variety of breakfast options from 8:00am. All students can have free toast before school.
A register is taken at the start of the day and during each lesson. Students arriving late are recorded as thus on the register, along with how many minutes late they are.
Lateness to school
According to DfE guidelines, registers must be closed after a certain time in the morning. Therefore, if a student arrives after 9.10am, they cannot receive a late mark but have to be marked as absent for the whole morning session. If the lateness is due to a legitimate reason e.g. a medical appointment, the absence can be authorised. Otherwise, the session is marked as an unauthorised absence. An email is sent home to parents.
Parents could be liable for a fixed penalty notice if the child receives 10 or more unauthorised absence sessions.
The School’s Support for Good Punctuality
We place a strong emphasis on good punctuality; we support this by:-
- Giving sanctions to students who arrive late to school or lessons.
- Clear transition time between lessons.
- Senior staff present first thing in the morning to encourage students to make it to PD on time.
- Addressing issues of poor time keeping with individual students and their parents.
Parents’/Carers' Support for Good Punctuality
We would ask parents to support us in maintaining good punctuality by:-
- Ensuring that their children get up in plenty of time to be ready and prepared for school.
- Ensuring their child has organised their bag and equipment the night before so that this does not delay departure in the morning.
- Discussing any issues of lateness to ensure this does not become a habit.
- Monitoring their child’s attendance, looking for patterns of lateness via the Arbor app.
Parents and Carers: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Parents and Carers FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Why has my child been marked as absent for the whole morning when they arrived at 9.30am?
As stated above, DfE guidelines state that the register must be closed after a reasonable time in the morning. If arriving after 9.10am, a child will be marked as an unauthorised absence for the morning session.
Could I receive a fine if my child is persistently late? If your child receives 10 or more unauthorised absences, you could be issued with a fixed penalty notice.
My child was only a couple of minutes late. It seems harsh that he/she should get a late mark. The school has to abide by the rules and expectations laid down for all schools. Lateness for school (or work) is a failure to arrive on time and will be marked as such. We would encourage students to set off in good time so that any small delay does not cause them to be late.
Our whole family overslept and it is not my child’s fault that he/she is late. Will they receive a late mark?
This can not be taken as an acceptable reason for lateness so a late mark or unauthorised absence would be recorded, depending on the time of arrival.
My child has to catch the bus to school which is sometimes late. Will they receive a late mark? Any lateness is recorded as thus on the register. We would advise that the child leaves earlier so that even if the bus is late, they will still arrive on time. If the bus is sometimes late, then it is not a reliable way to ensure arrival in good time.
Would you make any allowances for lateness if, for example, there were major traffic problems in the area perhaps because of an accident, so my car/the bus was unavoidably stuck in traffic? The school cannot make allowances for the individual problem (however genuine it may be). However, it does make allowances when there are known reported major problems that affect a large number of people; very heavy snowfall would be one such example.
What if I phone up/email to say my child is going to be late? Would he/she still get a late mark? Yes, they would still be marked late, but it is very helpful to know that you are aware and for us to know the expected time of arrival and reason for lateness.
If I know my child is going to be late, do I need to ring/send in a note?
It is very helpful if you do this. If your child is very late, they will be marked as unauthorised absence and your note may give an alternative acceptable reason to allow us to authorise the absence.