Please contact the Attendance Team or your child’s Head of Year.

• Ms Tarry -  Director of Pastoral Care & Attendance Lead - DDSL
• Mrs Avery - Education Welfare Officer 
• Mrs Poole (Attendance Officer)
• Mr O'Neill and Mrs Naughton (Head of Year 7)
• Miss McGloin (Head of Year 8)
• Miss Saycell (Head of Year 9)
• Mrs McManus (Head of Year 10)
• Miss Rennox (Head of Year 11) 

The following steps may be taken:

• Pre-Warn Letter: This will be sent out if we see frequent and/or irregular patterns of absence. This is our way of alerting you to the fact that your child’s attendance is starting to become a concern. We may stop authorising your child’s absence without medical evidence.
• Home Visit: Education Welfare Officer, attendance staff or Heads of Year will visit students at home when there is a concern for a child’s attendance, or if no contact has been made to state why the child is absent from college. These visits can be unannounced.
• Attendance Panel: You and your child may be invited to an Attendance Panel, to discuss reasons for absence, the impact of poor attendance on attainment and ways to move forward and support your child to improve their attendance and attainment.
• Penalty Warning Letter: This will be sent out when a child has unauthorised absences. Once this letter has been sent, absences cannot be authorised without a doctor’s note to state that your child is unfit for college. If your child is absent for a medical appointment, we require the letter or appointment card in order to authorise this absence.
• Early Help Assessment (EHA): We may offer to support your child’s attendance by putting a EHA into place, this allows us to draw in other agency support should we need it.
• Penalty Notice/Prosecution: If your child’s attendance does not improve following any or all of the above interventions, the Local Authority may choose to issue parents with a Penalty Notice or prosecute for their children’s non-attendance at college. 

What happens when students are late?

• Students sign in at student services.
• Persistent lateness will be followed up by the Pastoral Staff and the Attendance Team.
• Students parents/carers will be contacted and may be asked to come into college to discuss a plan.

Arrivals after 9:00am

Students arriving after this time are given a 'L' mark on the register. A ‘U’ mark is an unauthorised absence for the morning period which occurs after 9.30am.

For repeated late arrivals parents could receive a Penalty Warning Letter or a Penalty Notice from the Local Authority.

Please contact the Attendance Team or your child’s Head of Year if you are concerned about your child’s punctuality.

A number of parents have contacted us recently concerned that their child’s attendance at medical appointments has a negative impact on their attendance. Even when a student’s absence is authorised, this is still an absence and must be recorded as such.

Where it is possible, we ask that non-urgent appointments are made out of college hours. If a student has a morning appointment they should attend college as soon as possible and receive their afternoon mark. If a student has a mid-morning appointment, they should come into college for registration, sign out in time for their appointment and then come back for the rest of the college day. Unavoidable afternoon appointments should be made for after 2pm where possible.

Appointment cards or letters should be shown to the college for all medical appointments.

If you have any questions/concerns about medical appointments, please contact the attendance Team or your child’s Head of Year.

The Department for Education regulations state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. If exceptional circumstances arise you must take the following steps:

• Apply in writing as soon as possible to the Headteacher, stating the reason for absence and the duration of leave requested.
• Must be done in advance of the Leave of Absence.

If leave of absence is denied and you take your child/children out of school, the absence will be unauthorised. This may result in the following legal action being taken against you -

https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance

It is widely recognised that the educational outcomes and future life chances of children and young people can be significantly impacted upon by periods of absence. We thank you for supporting us in ensuring that your son/daughter attends school, on time, every day.