Impact on Achievement:
Regular attendance is not just a legal requirement, but it is vital for students to maximise their learning, and achieve full potential here at Arena Academy. Research shows that students with the best attendance also achieve the best results. Please find below a chart showing the impact that attendance has on outcomes.
What we are asking you to do:
As a parent or carer, there are important steps that we would ask you to take to support us in this focus on high levels of attendance:
- Ensure your child attends every day, on time, equipped and ready to learn. School starts promptly at 8.35am and students should be on the school grounds from 8.25am. All students are entitled to a FREE breakfast from 8:25 to 8:35am. Students arriving after 8.35am must sign in late at reception.
- Ensure the school has up to date addresses and telephone numbers. We will contact you if your child is absent if you have not contacted the school. This ensures that any absence is quickly identified.
- If your child is ill, please contact the school on each day of their absence and provide an explanatory note on their return to school. Please use the NHS website for more information about illness: Is my child too ill for school? – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
- If no contact is received regarding the absence, it is recorded as unauthorised. Ultimately the school is responsible for deciding if the absence is acceptable or not. Only genuine absence will be authorised. You will be asked to provide medical evidence if your child has a poor attendance record.
- Please ensure that medical appointments are made outside of school time.
- Avoid trivial absences such as, ‘buying new shoes’. This would not be accepted as a reasonable absence.
- Holidays should not be taken in school time. Any Leave of Absence can only be agreed by the Headteacher and only where there are exceptional circumstances.
- Respond to letters or telephone calls regarding attendance and punctuality.
- Contact your child’s Form Tutor, Year Group Coordinator or Head of Year if you are experiencing difficulty in getting your child into school.
- As parents/carers it is your responsibility to contact the school by 8.30am on each and every day of absence. The procedures are as follows:-
- Out of school hours:- Call the main school number on 01217297310 and choose option 1, where you can leave a message.
- During school hours:- Call the main school number on 01217297310 and choose option 1, where you can leave a message.
- When leaving a voice message, ensure to clearly state your name, the child’s full name, year group and the reason for absence. Kindly be as detailed as possible if you can or you can request a call back if you need to speak with someone.
- Please ensure that you follow these procedures and do not report absences by any other means as the messages may not get through to the Attendance Team before an absence text message or email is sent.
- If the parent/carer has not made contact, the school will contact home via phone call, text message or email to inform the parent/carer of the absence. Any absences where contact is not made, will be coded as unauthorised.
- For prolonged absence, due to illness of longer than three days or if the child has a poor attendance record, parents will be asked to provide the school with medical evidence such as a note from the child’s doctor, an appointment card, planned operation information, planned therapy letter, copy of a prescription or evidence of medication prescribed for the illness to authorise any absences. If medical evidence is not provided, then attendance will be treated as unauthorised.
- For absences of three or more days with/without contact from the family, a home visit may be made to check on the welfare of the pupil.
Thank you for working in partnership with us to achieve the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality at Arena Academy.
What is a ‘persistently absent’ student
If your child takes too much time off school they will become categorised as PA or persistently absent. (Attendance below 90% = persistent absence). This table shows how many days missed each half–term will make your child a PA student:
Fining parents for persistent non attendance
Schools can fine parents for the unauthorised absence of their child from school, where the child is of compulsory school age.
useful resources
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We can help
If you are concerned about your child’s school attendance it is always best to talk to us first. The academy has a dedicated Family Support Worker.