Attendance

At Budehaven we value education and the chances this gives us in life.
This means we place the highest value on school attendance. 

Good attendance at school is of course important for academic progress, but also to support your child’s social interaction with their peers, and the opportunity to participate in clubs and school events.

We have an expectation that students should aim for 100% attendance every year. This is because there is a direct link between attendance and success at school.

• A child who is absent a day of school per week misses an equivalent of two years of their school life
• 90% of young people with absence rates below 85% fail to achieve five good GCSE grades and around one third achieve no GCSEs at all
• 19 days of school missed per year (attendance of 90%) equals one GCSE grade dropped on average.
• Poor exam results limit young peoples’ options and poor attendance suggests unreliability to colleges and future employers

By law, all children must attend the school where they are ‘on roll’ regularly.  We view attendance of 99% and above as excellent; 97% as good; and 95% as satisfactory, meeting our minimum expectations.

Attendance below 95% is concerning; if 92% it is considered poor; and should attendance fall to 90% a student is considered to be a ‘persistent absentee’.

The school is required to report all students who don’t attend school regularly to the Local Authority.  Should your child’s attendance be cause for concern, we will invite you in to the attendance clinic to discuss the reasons and provide support if necessary to overcome any barriers to attendance.

Should there not be a good reason for continued low attendance at school, we work with the Local Authority, and the Education Welfare Officer to explore why the support put in place by is not working.  Ultimately, the school and Local Authority could proceed towards legal action, should the situation not improve.

attendance matters leaflet v2.pdf

 Helping your child to attend

There are a few ways in which you can help support your child’s attendance:

• Only take family holidays during the school holidays
• Check the nature of the illness, often children will feel better as the day progresses and once in school
• There is not a requirement to keep a child at home if they have been unwell the previous day/night. If they feel better, please send them back into school
• If you discover your child is worried about anything at school, contact the school and we will make an appointment with you and your child
• Please make medical appointments outside of school hours

Morning registration takes place during tutor time and closes at 9.10 a.m and afternoon registration is recorded at the start of lesson 4 at 12.30 p.m.

The school runs tutor group and house attendance competitions and there are awards for students with best and most improved attendance.

Reporting an absence

The school’s attendance officer monitors your child’s attendance. If your child is too sick to attend school, then please phone in to the school switchboard before 9.10am and select Option1: Report an Absence. You could also use the school gateway app (SchoolComms) to report an absence.

To guard against truancy, we presume all absence is unauthorised until a valid reason is given by a parent or carer.

Please see our Attendance Policy in the Policy section.

exceptional circumstance absence request 2020.pdf