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.
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.
We will ensure that you are regularly informed of your child's attendance. If your child's attendance becomes a concern, you may receive a letter requesting that you attend a meeting with a member of staff in order to discuss the barriers to attendance.
If, after initial measures to support your child have been unsuccessful, parents may be invited to attend further meetings with your child’s head of year, head of key stage and the school's attendance manager.
We hope you will support us in maintaining good attendance by booking medical and dental appointments and shopping trips either in the school holidays, after 4pm or at weekends.
The current school year has 188 days. This means that there are 167 other days that are available for appointments to be made. Most medical and dental surgeries also offer appointments outside of school hours.
Should you wish to request to take your child out of school for exceptional circumstances, please contact us and request a Leave of Absence Form, also available to download, using the link below.
These forms should be returned to Main Reception or Student Reception or via your child's Head of Year at least 2 weeks before the requested dates for absence.
Once received, the Vice Principal will consider your request. Only those requests which are considered to be due to exceptional circumstances will be authorised.
Any requests for leave of absence that are submitted with less than 10 days' notice will be coded as unauthorised.
The new National Framework introduces consistency in the use of Penalty Notices across England by introducing a new national threshold at which they are considered. The framework increases the amount of the Penalty Notice and introduces a new national limit of 2 Penalty Notices within a 3-year rolling period to break cycles of repeat offending.
In line with the guidance, Southwark Council will prioritise the ‘support first’ approach expecting that support will have been offered to families in cases where it is appropriate. However, Penalty Notices can be issued without a Notice to Improve in cases where support is not appropriate (such as leave of absence in term time) or when support has not been engaged with.
Penalty Notices are requested by schools and academies and issued by the Local Authority to the parents/carers of statutory school age children, per parent, per child. For example: two children in a family absent from school for a leave of absence may result in each parent receiving a Penalty Notice for each child at the below rates.
Penalty Notices can be requested by schools for leave of absence in term time for 5 or more days. This can be consecutive absence, or non- consecutive. In line with the National Framework, the Local Authority retains the discretion to issue a Penalty Notice before the threshold is met. For example, when parents/carers are deliberately avoiding the national threshold by taking multiple term time holidays below threshold, or for repeated absence for birthdays or other family events, or a combination of non-attendance due to leave of absence and unauthorised absence.
Penalty Notices can be requested by schools when there have been 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a 10-week period. In these circumstances a Notice to Improve may be sent by the Local Authority on behalf of the school, this will stipulate the support that has already been implemented and the ongoing support that is available to the parent and child to improve school attendance. The Notice to Improve will also detail the expected improvements that must be made over a set time frame to prevent the Penalty Notice being issued
Our Attendance Policy can be found on our Policies page.
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