Attendance Expectations

Kingswood Secondary Academy's expectation is that students attend school 100% of the time. 

Family holidays should not be taken during term time. The Academy is not obliged to authorise any absences due to family holidays. Ten school days absence taken as a holiday in a year will reduce a student’s attendance to 95% immediately. Any further absence due to illness will bring the attendance down below the Academy target.

Parents have a responsibility for ensuring their child attends the Academy regularly and punctually.

The Academy expects that all parents communicate with them, either in writing or by telephone, giving a reason:

1. In advance of any planned absence

2. Immediately following any unplanned absence

3. During any absence expected to last more than three days (Daily during a period of absence)

 Failure to comply with this requirement will mean that your child will have unauthorised absences on their attendance record, and this could lead to a referral to the Education Inclusion Partnership Team at North Northamptonshire Council.

Our Attendance Policy details the process that will be followed and expectations we have of students, families and ourselves to promote and support good Attendance.

Parents should contact the Academy, in confidence, whenever a problem occurs that may affect their child's attendance. Regular attendance means arriving on time for the start of the Academy day (by 8:30 for line-up). It is the parent's responsibility to ensure their child gets to the Academy on time.

Parents of students who are regularly late will be contacted so we can work together to rectify the situation. Where no improvement is made, the Education Inclusion Partnership Team will be informed.

POOR ATTENDANCE = POOR ATTAINMENT!

 

The impact of attendance lower than 95% is well documented, and we have seen in GCSE exam results the power attendance has over grades. With poor attendance comes lost learning:

Attendance (%)	Days absent	Weeks absent	Hours of learning missed
95%	9 days	2 weeks	45 hours
90%	19 days	4 weeks	95 hours
85%	29 days	6 weeks	145 hours
80%	38 days	8 weeks	190 hours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 90% attendance missing 95 hours of lessons is nearly an entire month of learning, in that time you would miss 2-3 topics within science, 2 topics within maths, 4 chapters within English. 95 hours is near enough impossible for students to catch up in their own time, it would take 2 and a half months working an extra 2 hours a day to catch up with the same quantity of work, but without help and support from staff the quality would still be considerably lower.

Rewards for attendance

We are rewarding students more than ever this year for fantastic attendance, we have weekly rewards for the form in each year group who has the highest attendance. Every student has a chance to win our “Friday Feast” reward of a £20 Just eat voucher, just for having 100% attendance that week. And other Flash rewards will be available for students who maintain 100% attendance throughout the year.

Some absences which are considered avoidable will be left unauthorised by the Academy. These include:

· Minor illness (i.e. seasonal coughs or colds)

· Looking after a sick relative

· Minding the house or waiting for workmen/deliveries etc

· Packing or getting ready for a holiday or trip or collecting relatives from the airport/station

· Being on holiday

· Looking after brothers and sisters, including dropping them off at the Academy or nursery

· Helping with housework or family business

· Being unhappy or not getting on with others at the Academy

For further information, please read our Attendance Policy by clicking the link below.

Attendance Officer

Our Attendance Officer is Miss M Symons and our Attendance Administrator is Mrs G Vizma. They can be reached at:

Miss Symons:         Msymons@kingswoodsecondaryacademy.org

Mrs Vizma:             Gvizma@kingswoodsecondaryacademy.org

Alternatively, they can be reached by calling the Academy (01536 741857) 

• Option 1 for Years 7-11 Attendance 
• Option 2 for 6th Form 

Other Useful Links

· Children Missing Education (CME) - Statutory Guidance

· Working Together to Improve School Attendance

· Education Inclusion Partnerships Team 

 

Education Inclusion and partnerships team EIPT now have new webpages on the North Northants Council website. This will affect any links that you may have saved.

The link to the new webpage is Attendance, behaviour and home schooling | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk).

The parents section is at the top  

There you should find sections on:

Attendance and Behaviour Support for Parents

Children in Employment and Entertainment

Home Schooling (Elective Home Education)

Children Missing from Education - Local Authority Link 

Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership - Children Missing from Education