At Bacon’s College we believe that regular, punctual school attendance is vital in order that students can achieve academic and personal excellence. Absence from school can be recognised as a safeguarding issue as it sometimes places children at risk and, in some cases, it can result in students being drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour.
Make sure that you provide the following information:
Do expect to receive a call back from the school to discuss your child’s absence and to see if we can support in any way.
If a child is absent for more than one day, the parent should contact the school each day to provide an update on the child’s condition, unless otherwise agreed by the school.
We do not advise that students take any time off during term time unless absolutely necessary.
However, if it is absolutely essential, we ask that you complete the below absence request form. Forms are expected to be recieved at least 2 week in advance of the date of absence.
Absence Request Form
Retrospective approval will not be given. It is important to stress that, by law, it is the Principal’s decision whether a child is given permission to be off school. Permission will only be granted in very exceptional circumstances based on the individual facts of the case. The opportunity to save money by going on holiday during term time is not considered as being a justifiable reason.
If permission is granted it is for the Principal to determine the number of days a student can be away from school.
Please note: permission is unlikely to be granted to students where a student's attendance is less than 96% or when they will miss an important event such as a public examination or where there are concerns about the student’s work or behaviour.
Any leave of absence taken without the Principal’s approval will be deemed unauthorised and may result in a penalty notice.
The school day starts at 8.25am and we expect your child to be in school at that time. Registers close at 8.45am and arrival after that time will mean the child is late after the legal register has closed. Lateness means they miss out on important routines which help get their day off to a positive start. Late arriving pupils also disrupt lessons during the day for others.
Pupils must be in their tutor lines before the 8.25am bell. Any pupil who arrives after this will be given a 30 minute detention at lunchtime for lateness. Any pupil who arrives after 8.45am will be given a 30 minute detention at lunch and a one hour detention after school. All detentions take place on the same day.
Year 11 are treated differently once their extended day starts in October. Their start time is 8.15am and they will receive a late mark and 30 minute detention if they arrive after this time. The same sanction above for arriving after 8.45am.
Persistent lateness will be addressed by the pastoral team
We reward those students whose attendance is good or better. The range of rewards we use includes certificates, trips, raffles and invitations to high profile events such as the Year 11 Prom.
Regular attendance of students is closely related to their levels of achievement. This makes the issue of regular attendance of great importance. Under education legislation, parents have a duty to ensure that their children attend school regularly and punctually. Failure to do so, without reasonable excuse, can result in referrals to the Local Authority with the prospect of fines or prosecution for those parents, should a child’s attendance not improve rapidly.
It is useful for you to know what attendance figures mean for your child. We encourage all parents and carers to use the Arbor app in order to monitor their child's attendance.
Our minimum expected target for all students is 97%.
All students whose attendance is below 90% are classified as Persistent Absentees and, depending upon personal circumstances, face possible referral to the Education Inclusion Team.
Out Attendance Poster provides more detailed information about attendance over the course of a full academic year.
Parents are expected to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at Bacon’s College attend regularly and arrive to school on time. If a child of compulsory school age fails to attend regularly at the school at which they are registered, the parents may be guilty of an offence and can be prosecuted by the local authority.
Our attendance team supports parents, students, teaching staff and other professionals to secure the highest possible attendance.
Our Attendance Policy can be found on our Policies page.
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