Attendance
The most obvious factor impacting on pupil’s achievement is attendance
Research indicates that students with good attendance are 2.8 times more likely to achieve 5+ GCSE’s 5-9 or equivalent, including English and maths, than students with 15%-20% absence. From September 2015, Government guidelines state that students with attendance less than 90% will be classed as persistent absentees and parents will be at risk of a penalty notice and/or court action.
Absence due to illness
Main school: If your child is unable to attend school please email attendance@smrt.bristol.sch.uk or call 0117 3532069 before 8:30am on every day of absence, giving a reason for the absence. When your child returns to school, please provide a note for your child's tutor even if an explanation has already been given by telephone or email.
Sixth Form: If your child is unable to attend school please email 6thform@smrt.bristol.sch.uk, or call 0117 3773465.
This leaflet provides advice on whether to send your child into school for a range of illnesses.
During any periods of remote learning we still require you to report absences in the same way. Further information on remote learning is available here.
What Happens if your Child is not Present?
When a student has an absent mark for morning registration and no phone call has been received, a text message will be sent to the parent/carer requesting they contact the school immediately to give the reason for absence.
We aim for all our students to have 95% plus attendance. Should your child's attendance become of concern to us, we will write to you informing you of this and request that you make every effort to ensure your child is in school for the maximum number of days possible.
Unacceptable Levels of Absence
If you receive a letter to say we are no longer authorising your child's absence, this is due to a high level of illness or where no reason has been provided. High levels of absence would be more than five days on one occasion or three occasions of one day or more, usually when attendance is 90% or lower. You can get illness/medical appointments authorised by bringing in appointment cards or medication packaging or other medical evidence. These should be brought to reception for the attention of the Attendance team, we will copy it, store it on their file and return the original. Alternatively, documentation can be scanned and sent to the Deputy Heads of Year.
Absence Letters
If you receive a letter/email asking where your child was on a certain date it is important that you contact us. You can do this via e-mail to attendance@smrt.bristol.sch.uk, telephone or sending your child in with the slip completed. If we do not receive this information a penalty notice could be issued as the absences will stay as unauthorised.
Leave of Absence Requests
The Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations 2006 (amended 2013) includes the fact that Headteachers’ may NOT grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. If there are exceptional circumstances parents/carers will need to complete a Leave of Absence request in advance asking to have a discussion about the reasons.
Penalty Notices
A £60 penalty notice can be issued by the local authority if there are between 8-20 half day absences in any 10 week period. All parents/carers at risk of receiving a penalty notice are sent an appointment to discuss how we can stop attendance getting to the point where a fine is sent. It is important you attend this meeting or advise us in advance if you are unable to attend. Penalty notices are £60 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice, rising to £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days. If payment is not made by the 28 day deadline you may be prosecuted for the offence of failing to ensure your child’s regular attendance at school.
Child Employment and Licensing
Children can be employed in certain occupations from 13 to 16 years old (or until the child reaches Statutory Leaving Age). They will need a work permit and this is free from the local authority. Children who perform on stage, in television, film or commercial work, who take part in paid or professional sport or who work as models need to be licensed by their local authority, if they are missing school. Please refer to the Bristol City Council child employment and licensing website page for further information.
SOL Attendance
We have partnered with SOL Attendance to provide a framework for managing attendance.
The target attendance figure for all students is 97% or above. Based on current attendance figures each student will be placed in one of the attendance groups in the diamond above. Students will be informed of their attendance group by their Tutor.
How you can Support your Child's/Children's Attendance
Regular attendance is not just a legal requirement, but it is vital for students to maximise their learning and achieve their full potential here at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School. There are a number of important steps that you can take to ensure your child maintains a high level of attendance:
- Ensure your child attends every day, on time, equipped and ready to learn.
- Ensure the school has up-to-date addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers. You can use your Bromcom MCAS account to update your contact details. We will contact you by text or by telephone if your child is absent, and you have not contacted the school. This ensures that we can contact you about your child and can contact you in an emergency.
- If your child is ill, contact the school. Please make sure you contact the school every day your child is absent (either by email or by phone).
- If no contact is received regarding the absence, it is recorded as unauthorised. Ultimately the school is responsible for deciding if the absence is acceptable or not. Only genuine absence will be authorised. You will be asked to provide medical certificates if your child has a poor attendance record.
- Ensure that medical and dental appointments are made outside of school time. If this is not possible, students should attend school before and or after the appointment where possible. We will need to see medical evidence upon return if there are concerns about attendance.
- Avoid non-essential absences such as buying new shoes. This would not be accepted as a reasonable absence as it could be done outside of school time.
- Holidays should not be taken in term time. Holidays will not be authorised unless the circumstance is exceptional and may result in a penalty notice.
- Respond to school letters or telephone calls regarding attendance and punctuality. We are grateful to parents and carers for their efforts in getting students into school but we know that sometimes life can throw up challenges which make this difficult. We are here to support you so if you are having trouble getting your child into school then please contact your child's tutor or Deputy Head of Year and we can work together to resolve the issue.