Regular and punctual attendance of pupils at school is both a legal requirement and crucial to a pupil’s success – there is a clear link between a high rate of attendance and high achievement. If pupils are not in lessons they CANNOT LEARN! EVERY LESSON REALLY DOES COUNT!!

There may be a very good reason for absence from school, for example genuine illness and other medical issues, however there are many other reasons that cause pupils to have time off from school. If there are any reasons which are causing your child to not attend school please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Where a pupil’s attendance is below 90%, it is the equivalent of missing 19 days of school = nearly 4 weeks or 95 lessons per year!

Attendance below 80% = 38 DAYS absence, nearly 8 WEEKS or 190 LESSONS per year! At the end of 5 years at the Academy, 80% attendance would result in a child missing 1 whole school year!

Persistent absent pupils

The Government and the Academy view school attendance regularly and whether authorised or unauthorised, if a pupil’s attendance drops below 90% they become classified as a Persistent Absent (PA) pupil. If a pupil becomes a PA pupil, Tudor Grange Samworth Academy may take legal action through our Education Welfare Service (EWS) dependant on the reasons for absence.

The EWS will instruct the school that further absences cannot be authorised without medical evidence (from your child’s doctor). In such circumstances, a note or call from parents stating absence due to illness will no longer suffice and further absences will be unauthorised.

Late arrival at school

When your child arrives late at school, he/she misses the teacher’s instructions and the introduction to the lesson. Your child may also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late.

Minutes late per day during the school yearEquals total days of teaching lost in a year
5 minutes3.4 days
10 minutes6.9 days
15 minutes10.3 days
20 minutes13.8 days
30 minutes20.7 days

Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning lost and can seriously disadvantage your child.

School begins at 8.30 am. Please help your child to be punctual.

The School Day

The timings of the school day vary depending on the age of your child. Click on the correct age group to
see an outline of a typical day:

Developing a good routine is extremely important for learning and well-being. Please ensure that your child arrives and is collected at the correct time as this will give them maximum time for learning, reduce disruption to the class and prevent anxiety caused by waiting.

For a weekly timetable, please refer to your child’s Year Group page.

Absences

Parents should contact the Academy as soon as possible each day a pupil is not going to be in school. Pupils who have been absent for whatever length of time should bring in a parental note of explanation on the day they return. When a pupil has been off sick for more than three days, it is important for parents to contact the Academy to update us about the problem.

Please notify your child’s tutor of any infectious or contagious illness occurring in the household. In such cases, a pupil should not attend the Academy until a medical certificate has been submitted indicating that he/she may do so safely.

Leave of absence

If a pupil needs to attend a medical appointment or requires a leave of absence for any other reason, a letter must be brought from home. The letter should be shown to the Tutor and then passed to the College Administrator in Student Services who will issue a ‘leave of absence permission slip’. The leave of absence should be obtained before the day it is needed, except in an emergency. For details on how to apply for requests of leave of absence for family holidays, please see “Leave of absence for family holidays” below.

Before leaving the Academy, the pupil should report to Student Services and sign out. Pupils must be collected by parents from Reception unless a letter, giving specific permission to leave the Academy alone, is received. On returning to the Academy, the pupil should immediately sign in and hand the slip into Reception.

In confidence

If there are circumstances at home which may affect your child’s work or behaviour at the Academy (e.g. illness in the family), please notify the Academy. Such information will be treated with discretion, though, if you wish, teaching staff will be informed in general terms that there is a problem.

Leave of absence for family holidays

It is against the law to take your child out of school for a holiday. We have a strong belief that attendance and academic success go hand in hand so would urge that Academy term dates are adhered to, in accordance with recent guidelines.

From the 1st September 2013 in accordance with the Education (Pupil Registration England) Regulations amendment of the 2006 Regulations, Tudor Grange Academies Trust will be complying with the amendment in that the Principal will not be authorising leave of absence unless there are “exceptional circumstances”.

The Academy has a responsibility to safeguard every child on roll at the Academy and therefore a Leave of Absence form must be completed in any circumstances, three weeks before the planned leave and submitted to the office for the Principal’s decision.

A letter confirming that the Leave of Absence form has been received and whether the absence has been either authorised or unauthorised will be sent to parents within seven days of receipt of the Leave of Absence form.

If the Academy has referred the pupil/family to the Local Authority for any form of legal action the absence will not be authorised even if it falls into an exceptional circumstances category.

The parent/guardian should be made aware that if they do take a holiday in term time and it does not fall into the category exceptional circumstances, it will lead to the pupil being automatically marked as an unauthorised absence. The Academy will then consider whether to refer the matter to the Local Authority to take appropriate legal action.