Co-op Academy Walkden Attendance Policy

Approved by:                [Governing Council]

Approved in:                [February 2024]

Review by:                [February 2025]

Attendance Policy

The names of the designated individuals are:

Chris Corbett Pastoral

Emily Faulkner – Attendance Manager

Tom McAndrew – Attendance Officer

Jillian Lynch – Attendance Assistant

Principles

We strive to provide a welcome, caring environment whereby each member of the school community feels valued, safe and is able to achieve.

Regular school attendance is important in order for students to reach their full potential. The information below is taken from the DCSF National Strategy and demonstrates the possible impact of attendance upon attainment.

Maintaining and improving attendance of the whole school, or groups of individual students requires persistent vigilance in every School.

Co-op Academy Walkden is committed to providing a full and efficient educational experience for all students. We believe that if students are to benefit from education, good attendance is crucial. As a school, we do all we can to ensure maximum attendance for all students. Any problems that impede full attendance are identified and addressed as speedily as possible. It is the policy of our school to celebrate achievement. Our school actively promotes and encourages 100% attendance for all our students.

Our school gives a high priority to conveying to parents, carers and students the importance of regular and punctual attendance. All school staff work with students and their families to ensure this happens. We recognise that parents and carers have a vital role to play and that there is a need to establish strong home-school links and communication systems that can be utilised whenever there is concern about attendance.

To achieve this we:

• provide an efficient and effective system of communication with students,

parents and appropriate agencies to provide information, advice and support.

• provide an effective system of rewards and incentives which acknowledge the

efforts our students make to improve their attendance or time keeping

• challenge the behaviour and attitudes of those students and parent/carers who

give low priority to attendance and punctuality.

We fully support current government action to improve attendance, including measures designed to reduce holidays taken in term time, and therefore the school has made a decision not to authorise holidays. Absence requests will only be authorised by the Principal in exceptional circumstances.

Aims

The aims of this policy are to:

• promote a welcoming atmosphere that makes students feel safe and valued
• encourage good relationships between the school and parents/carers;
• stress the importance of good attendance and punctuality;
• ensure that attendance is monitored effectively and absence followed up quickly;

Intentions

By following this policy, we ensure that:

• all staff are aware of the registration process and receive in-service training on registration regulations;
•  all staff complete registers at the beginning of each morning and afternoon session within 15 minutes of the start of the session;
•  all staff take a register for each lesson, to prevent truancy from individual lessons;
• we encourage parents/carers to contact school at the earliest opportunity when a student is going to be absent.

Expectations

To support the key policy statements, Co-op Academy Walkden expects pupils, parents/carers and staff to work together to promote regular attendance.

We promote good attendance by:

• making parents/carers, students and staff aware of its importance and their responsibilities.
• Making sure attendance features on the agenda of Tutor meetings, Student Progress and Governor Meetings.
• Having a Governor with responsibility for Attendance.

The Role of Parents/Carers

Regular liaison is used to reduce absences and to educate and inform parents/carers to establish high attendance as a valuable feature of school life.

Details of each student’s record of Attendance is available on Class Charts and are included in their progress reports and annual report sent home to parents/carers.

 Parents/carers are informed and reminded of the importance of regular attendance and good punctuality through newsletters, parents’ evenings, school website, the main reception plasma screen and letters home.

Parents/carers of students are asked to report absences via Class Charts  on the first day of absence and every subsequent day unless notified in advance.

Any attendance information received by the Personal Development (PD) Tutor must be forwarded to the Attendance Team promptly. The Attendance Team will then code the student’s absence electronically and will keep a manual record of all telephone calls received.

In relation to the coding of the registers, only the Attendance Team and Mr Corbett are authorised to code the registers.

If the Attendance Team does not receive a message regarding absences, parents/carers will be contacted by text/phone. It is important that the school is made aware of any absence for students in the interests of their welfare and legal compliance. If no contact is made, school will consider conducting a home visit.

The Role of Students

The school day starts at 8.20am. Students are welcome to attend from 8am at our Breakfast Club.

Students arriving late for school are expected to go straight to lessons  where they will be marked as late.  The Attendance Officer will meet all students arriving late.

The Attendance Officer will issue detentions to those students without a reasonable explanation. A message will be sent that day to the parent/carer of every child that is late to school. All latecomers will be issued with a notice setting out their time of arrival, and this will be recorded on a master record.

Registers will close at 9.00am. Students that arrive late, but before 9.00am, will be marked as ‘L’ in the register. Regular lates will be monitored and parents informed. In cases of frequent lateness, we will invite parents/carers in for a meeting to discuss the reasons for this, and offer support.

There are consequences in place for lateness and persistent lateness.  Any student arriving to school after registers close at 9.00am, will be deemed as truanting unless a genuine reason can be provided to explain their absence. The school reserves the right to decide what is deemed a genuine absence. Such students will be coded in the register as ‘U’ (unauthorised absence) without a genuine reason.

Students who leave Co-op Academy Walkden for appointments before the end of the school day must have written permission from parents/carers that has been agreed by their Head of Year or a member of the Attendance Team. On leaving the premises, they must sign out with Student Services. Students attending a medical appointment during the school day must provide evidence of this

Students will be regularly informed about the importance of regular attendance and good punctuality through lessons, assemblies, Tutors, plasma screens and Attendance Weeks.

Students may be required to meet with a member of the Pastoral Team or the Attendance Officer to discuss any attendance concerns.

Procedures
There are clear expectations regarding the role of staff in following these procedures.

Registration

Co-op Academy Walkden makes use of an electronic system to record and monitor attendance. Each lesson staff record attendance via the SIMS network. All staff have access to SIMS. All teaching staff are provided with laptops / PCs.

Co-op Academy Walkden attendance record is maintained electronically and supervised by the Attendance Officer under direction of the Attendance Manager.

Any unexplained first day absences are promptly followed up by the Attendance Team with a text or telephone call home to the parents/carers to ascertain the reason for the non- attendance.

Registers are completed for each lesson as part of ‘lesson monitor’. Pupils missing from lessons are referred to ‘on call’ for investigation.

A weekly update of Tutor Group attendance is presented to staff via the bulletin. Tutor groups with the best attendance are rewarded, while year group attendance is shared at assemblies. The school operates a fortnightly inter-form attendance competition, where prizes are awarded.

Punctuality is monitored by all staff and appropriate action is taken to redress persistent late arrival at school or to lessons (refer to Behaviour Policy). Staff challenge students who do not arrive on time and seek a reason for lateness. Should a punctuality problem persist, staff should inform the students Tutor and Head of Year, and parents/carers will be contacted. Further problems are referred to the Attendance Team

Information about Co-op Academy Walkden’s expectations for attendance is included on our Website and in our prospectus.

Support for pupils in maintaining regular attendance

Co-op Academy Walkden supports and promotes regular attendance. We provide weekly Tutor Group competitions and rewards for students who have made significant improvement in their attendance.

We track and review attendance of all students and identify patterns of absence, to allow specific support to be targeted for students as needed..Parents will be contacted, should a pupil’s attendance fall below 95%. This will usually be a letter home inviting parents to contact the school.

Co-op Academy Walkden aims to work with parents/carers to ensure pupils can achieve regular attendance. We provide comprehensive pastoral support and offer advice and support to all students as required to ensure they can achieve regular attendance and achieve their potential. Parents are welcome to speak with Heads of Year, or the Attendance Team, should they be concerned about their child’s absence from school. Heads of Year and the Attendance Team can provide advice, ongoing mentoring with pupils and signposting to other sources of support.

Some pupils may also be offered additional support from the Family Support Worker, including liaison with home and signposting to additional services and support. Should this be appropriate, the Family Support Worker will discuss directly with families.

Co-op Academy Walkden works alongside a number of agencies and offers appropriate referrals and access to Early Help to ensure the needs of students are identified and appropriate support is provided.

The academy follows a staged process in notifying parents of attendance concerns. Initial letters will be sent for pupils where attendance has fallen below the national average at 95%.This is referred to as Stage 1. At this point, a member of the Attendance Team will meet with the student and liaise closely with the parent/carer to agree an individual plan to improve attendance, and to offer support.

Further communication will be made should attendance remain a concern and parents will be invited to meet with Heads of Year and/or the Attendance Officer.

These interventions are aimed to help identify issues affecting attendance early and provide support, signposting and intervention. Pupils will be offered an individual plan to improve their attendance and we are committed to working with parents/carers to ensure all pupils are supported in making improvements when necessary.

It is important that you inform school promptly of any issues that may affect a student’s attendance. The Attendance Team will work with parents/carers to offer support and resolutions.

Students Returning After an Absence:

We provide students, who have been absent from school for a substantial period of time, with a meeting to ensure a successful reintegration back into full time education. All strategies and support agreed at this meeting are clearly communicated to all staff and parents/carers.

Pastoral staff, particularly the PD Tutor, take special responsibility for encouraging students to attend school and helping them settle back in following an absence.

Each subject initiates procedures to help Students catch up with missed work.

Persistent Absence due to illness:

Co-op Academy Walkden staff ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made to enable students to maintain regular attendance, should they have medical needs that are preventing them from attending regularly. Should a student be absent for a significant time due to medical needs (more than 20 sessions absent within 100 sessions), we will notify the Local Authority.

When the level of absence attributed to illness reaches a level of concern, the Local Authority states it is reasonable for a school to ask the parent/carer for further information, and in some cases, evidence of illness. The Attendance team will write to you directly if this applies to you.

Supporting Students to Improve Attendance

Student attendance is monitored and reviewed by the Attendance Team. Where a student’s

attendance has fallen below expected level of 96%, their tutor may be asked to speak with them individually to help identify any concerns or where we can support improvement.

If a student’s attendance continues to fall, they may be asked to meet with the Attendance Team to discuss the absences in more detail, while parents/carers will be notified via letter and invited to contact school.

Parents are invited to contact the Academy at any time, should they have any concerns regarding their child’s attendance. We engage in parental focused events and are able to use Class Charts messaging service, should parent/carers wish to use these forums. We value feedback and wish to be proactive in addressing barriers for students to ensure they can access their learning every school day. Parents/carers can also email the Attendance Team directly, using the links on our website.

Continued falls in attendance will lead to an offer for a supportive meeting with the Attendance Officer, where we will discuss reasons for absences and how we may be able to support the student. This could be through our EBSA Programme, additional support in school or through referral to external support, such as Early help.

We will continue to review the student’s absences and a decision will  be made to request medical evidence and parents/carers will be advised on what evidence will be needed. Continued absence may not be authorised without medical evidence.

Punctuality

Punctuality is an important part of students learning self discipline and good time management. Co-op Academy Walkden expects students to attend by 8.20am. If students arrive after 8.30am, they will need to sign in and will be registered ‘late’.

The Attendance Manager and Attendance Officer will greet students daily at the main entrance, encouraging punctuality and identifying any thematic issues that may cause lateness

Where students continue to be late to school without genuine reason, they will be expected to attend lunchtime detentions with the Vice Principal. Persistent poor punctuality after 9.00am may lead to a formal warning and potential fine issued to parents/carers.

Investigating Unexplained or Unauthorised Absences

Where a student’s absence remains unexplained, parents will be invited to a meeting in school or will be visited at home. Medical evidence may be requested before any further absences are authorised due to illness. It is a decision for the school as to whether to authorise absence or not. Parental condoned absence will only be authorised by the school if deemed appropriate. For example, the school will not accept the following excuses for absence:

• Going shopping;

• Getting a haircut;
• Buying shoes / clothes;
• Caring for siblings or other relatives;
• Unable to attend school due to parental illness;
• Going on holiday.

In the case of absence due to a student caring for an ill, elderly, or disabled relative, a referral will be made for support for this student as a young carer. We are committed to supporting young carers, which includes supporting them to ensure their caring role does not prevent them attending school.

Unexplained absences and persistent absence will be challenged and investigated. Parents/carers need to be aware that regular school attendance is a legal requirement under section 7 of the Education Act (1996). Parents/carers may be prosecuted for failure to ensure their child attends school regularly (s444, Education Act 1996).

While we aim to work with students and their families to overcome any barriers to attending school, Co-op Academy Walkden may have to issue Formal Warnings to parents. This may lead to action by the Local Authority.

In cases where we have been unable to support improvement for persistent absences, and they remain not authorised by the school, we may refer to the Local Authority for consideration of legal interventions. This may lead to a Penalty Notice being issued for truancy and/ or parents being referred to the Magistrates Court for prosecution under s444 of the Education Act (1996).

Penalty Notices may be issued by the Local Authority after 10 sessions of unauthorised absences, equivalent to 5 days. We aim to avoid the need for this, and should we feel a parent/carer is at risk of a penalty notice fine, we aim to issue Warnings at 6 sessions.

The Education Welfare Officer visits the Academy on a regular basis and may need to meet with students along with their parents/carers. Formal involvement may involve parents/carers being invited to engage in a Parenting Contract. This is aimed to formalise the best support actions to help students improve their attendance.

Requests for Holidays in term-time

• The Government does not encourage absences during school time for family holidays and Co-op Academy Walkden only authorises absences under “exceptional circumstances”.
• If a parent/carer wishes to request such an absence, they must complete the appropriate request form and submit it to school. This is an online form, available on Co-op Academy Walkden website.
• Any request for term-time absences must be approved by the Principal.
• Absences that are not authorised by the Principal are referred to the Attendance team.
• Unauthorised absences, due to holidays will be referred to the Local Authority for consideration of issuing Penalty Notice Fines.

Staff Responsible for Attendance

Attendance Manager:

Mrs E Faulkner

Emily.faulkner@coopacademies.co.uk

Senior Leader responsible for attendance:

Mr C Corbett, Vice Principal.

chris.corbett@coopacademies.co.uk

You can also contact the Academy Attendance Team to discuss any matters regarding your child’s attendance. Their contact details are available on the website.