ATTENDANCE

Absence

Parents/Carers are responsible for informing the school in the event of any absence. This includes; sickness, medical appointments and any other unplanned absence.

Parents/Carers can inform the school via the following methods:

Sending a message via Edu Link
Email: attendance@corneliusvermuyden.com,stating your child's name and detailed reason for absence.
by telephone on 01268 6850 I I ext 2304

Communication must be made as soon as possible, however, notification via text or the telephone does not necessarily mean that the school will approve an absence, further information may be required.

Please be advised that after three days of absence due to sickness, medical evidence will be requested. This can be provided in the form of a GP appointment card, copy of the prescription or note from your doctor.

If attendance problems continue then, the school expects parents to work actively with school staff and the Local Authority, to resolve them.

Safeguard Check

Any student who has been absent for 5 days will be visited by our Attendance Ambassadors. They will complete the Safeguarding check, which will involve seeing and speaking to the student.

Leave of Absence

Leave of absence may only be granted by a person authorised in that behalf by the proprietor of the school. As from 1st September 2013, the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 amended Regulation 7 to prohibit the proprietor of a maintained school from granting leave of absence to a student, except where an advance application has been made by the parent with whom the student normally resides, and the proprietor considers that there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.

The Government data on pupils taking holidays during term time shows that;

Taking your child out of school during term time could be detrimental to your child's educational progress. A student who takes 10 days of absence will only attain 94.7% attendance in the year. 10 days of absence also means the student will miss 50 hours of education. This also means that any pupil in Year 11 who has 95% attendance may underachieve in their GCSE examinations by 1 GCSE level.

There is no entitlement to parents to take their child out of school during term time; however, you may apply to the school for leave of absence if you believe there are exceptional circumstances. If not and the absence is taken it will not be authorised and the case will be referred to the Education Welfare Service who may issue a Penalty Notice for £120 (or £60 if paid within 21 days) to each parent for each child taken out of school.

An application form for Leave of Absence during term time can be collected from the front office. Please note that a letter must be attached to this request, outlining the 'exceptional circumstances' for which a leave of absence is being applied for.

These need to be returned to the front office for the attention of the Attendance Team.

Registration

Registration is completed electronically by staff during AM tutor.
Registers must be taken at the beginning of every lesson. AM tutor and PS registers are the legal record of morning and afternoon attendance and the electronic register must be completed.

Start and Close of Registration

The school will complete accurate registers at the beginning of each morning and afternoon session tutor; i.e. within IO minutes of the start of the lesson/tutor.

Morning registration begins at 8.10 a.m. and Afternoon registration at 1.00 p.m. each school day and registers will be closed 30 minutes after these times. If a student arrives after the register has closed, they should report to the main office to be entered into the late record book.

Students arriving after the register has closed, without an acceptable reason, will be marked as having an unauthorised absence for that session.

Signing in/out

If your child has an appointment or any other reason for leaving school during school hours, students are required to sign in and out using the register located within the main office. When signing in/out, students are expected to present written communication from a parent/carer, which can be in the form of a letter or an entry within their student planner. If a student is unable to provide this information and no communication has otherwise been received from the parent/carer, a call home will be made before the student is allowed to leave the school grounds. When signing out for medical appointments, students will be given a compliment slip which we request to be stamped by your surgery/practitioner and returned the next day.

Late for School

Students who arrive late for school are also expected to sign in, stating the reason for their lateness.