Attendance

Simply put your child can only make the most of what our Academy has to offer if they attend and are on time every day. 

Irregular attendance and lateness are disruptive, leading to students feeling out of touch with Academy life and this can lead to being constantly behind in their schoolwork.

It is clear that having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life. Excellent attendance is a key factor in achieving success at school.

There will be of course occasions when your child may be unable to attend the Academy because of illness or other unavoidable causes. It is therefore vital that you as a parent/carer communicate with the Academy to inform us of the nature and expected duration of any absences. The Academy will then be able to decide whether the absence can be authorised.

It is important to understand why some students do not attend school:

• Some children may wish to avoid the Academy as it creates severe anxiety for them
• Some children may simply not want to go to school

If you, as a family, are experiencing problems with school attendance, it is of vital importance that you contact and discuss the matter with our Attendance Officer in the first instance. Tutors, Heads of Year and senior staff may become involved depending on the need of your child. Please be assured that everyone in the Academy is here to help, support and advise.

Each year a number of parents contact us regarding family holidays within term time. Government guidelines are very clear in that no leave of absence should be granted unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Please see below the Academy's Withdrawal from Learning form that must be completed for any exceptional circumstance to be considered.

Withdrawal from learning form

We would like to bring to your notice that, under the Education Act 1996; it is the duty of parent(s)/responsible adult(s) to ensure the regular attendance of their child in school. This means that they must be in attendance, and on time, every time the school is open, unless they are prevented from doing so by reason of illness or any unavoidable cause. If parents take their children on holiday in term time and leave of absence has not been granted, the Local Education Authority may issue a Penalty Notice under Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. The Penalty Notice imposes a fine of up to £160 per parent per child.

Local Authorities are charged in law with enforcing school attendance.

If you wish to obtain more information or advice please click here for the Kent County Council Website.

DfE Privacy Notice for school’s daily attendance data collection

Something To Think About...

If a student has 90% attendance in Year 7, they will have missed 4 weeks of teaching and learning. If the same student repeats this all the way to the end of Year 11, they will have missed the equivalent of half a year in terms of missed learning time. If the figure was 80% over the course of time between Years 7 and 11 then the student will have missed an entire year of learning. This will have a huge impact on progress and attainment and consequently their options at post-16 will be severely limited.

We cannot emphasise enough just how important it is for your child to be here every day and on time. Not only will it lead to more options being available to them at post-16, but it will also put them in good stead for the world of work where lateness and absence issues are not tolerated.

You can really help us by:

• Making dental/doctor’s appointments outside of school hours
• Ensuring your child arrives on time every day; the Courts class repeated lateness as truancy
• Not booking holidays in term time
• Ensuring your child never misses the first and last days of term as these are so important for them both academically and socially
• Not allowing your child the odd day off as this can become a habit

Your child only has one chance at school, please work with us to ensure they make the most of every single day. Every day counts!