Attendance

Attendance procedures

The school has a clear set of procedures to monitor attendance. The government classes any student with an attendance rate of less than 90% as ‘persistently absent’. Should a child’s attendance fall persistently below 95%, a series of letters will be sent out and different procedures put into place depending on the severity of the absence. Please see our Attendance Policy. 

Punctuality

Remember, every minute counts. If a child is ten minutes late every day, this equates to nearly seven days of absence from lessons over a school year. Students need to be in their tutor bases for 8.40am. Those students that enter school after this time are late for school. Parents will be notified by email if their child receives two late marks in one week, and this will trigger a detention with their Head of Year. Students who arrive after 09:15 without a valid reason for their lateness will have their register coded with an unauthorised absence. Over 10 unauthorised absences can lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) being issued.

Absence due to illness

We know that sometimes our students cannot come to school because they are really unwell - and that's the right thing to do for them and other students. Medical advice is clear however that children with mild illness will often be well enough to attend - for example if they have a cough or cold without a temperature. The NHS guidance Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk) is designed to support parents and carers in their decision making about mild illness. If you child is not well enough to attend school, you must notify of this. Please see the section below.

Notifying School

You must notify the school of planned or unexpected absence. Please see the section below.

If there are specific barriers to your child maintaining high attendance to school, please support us by contacting the relevant Pastoral Team for your child’s year group (e.g. y7@nestonhigh.com for the Year 7 Team) to discuss the nature of these barriers.

We appreciate that every family’s situation is unique, and open dialogue with you will help us to identify the most impactful and appropriate support your child needs.

We know that parents and carers worry about their children’s mental health. Mild anxiety, whilst sometimes a difficult emotion, is normal. In many instances, attendance at school may serve to help with the underlying issue more than being away from school, which might exacerbate it. In this circumstance, we would ask that you encourage your child to attend school and you let us know about your worries so that we can work together on supporting your child. It is important to us that all children feel safe and supported when attending school and we are keen to work with you to ensure that this is the case.

If your child is going to be absent from school, please email attendance@nestonhigh.com to report the absence in the first instance (rather than your child’s form tutor or Year Team). Please do this on the first day of absence, and on every subsequent day thereafter. If school is not notified of the reason for the absence, it will be ‘unauthorised’. Allowing a child to be absent without good reason is against the law.

For medical appointments, medical evidence is required to authorise the absence (e.g. screen shot of appointment confirmation) – please email this to attendance@nestonhigh.com.

Students are registered electronically and if a student is absent without explanation, automatic texts will be sent to parent /carers. This is an important part of our safeguarding procedure within school.

We know that sometimes our students cannot come to school because they are really unwell - and that's the right thing to do for them and other students. Medical advice is clear however that children with mild illness will often be well enough to attend - for example if they have a cough or cold without a temperature. The NHS guidance Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk) is designed to support parents and carers in their decision making about mild illness.

Medical Reasons 

Please see 'notifying school of absence' section.

Exceptional Circumstances 

The school does not encourage any leave of absence to be taken during term time. We recognise that holidays can be much cheaper during term time and that work commitments can make taking holidays during school breaks difficult, but doing this can be disruptive to both children’s learning and the school. The government has issued strict guidelines to schools regarding leave of absence for students. Under these guidelines, Headteachers are not able to grant leave of absence for students during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Should parents/carers wish to seek leave of absence for their child, please complete the below form and return to school. Please complete the form fully, adding any evidence to support the application. Each case will be considered on its merits. The Headteacher will determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.

Parents should not plan for their child to be absent from school without gaining prior agreement. Requests for planned leave of absence under exceptional circumstances should be made at least four weeks in advance of the start date of the requested absence, by completing the Leave of Absence Request Form. This form is linked below. The Headteacher cannot retrospectively authorise a planned absence.

The following will NOT be deemed to be exceptional circumstances:

• Family holiday
• Availability of less expensive holiday
• Availability of holiday accommodation
• Overlap with the beginning or the end of a term or a half term

In deciding whether to allow parents/carers to take children out of school in term time, the Headteacher  will consider factors such as:

• Purpose of absence
• Circumstances of the request
• Amount of time requested
• Nearness of examinations, assessments  or tests
• Overall attendance  record
• Any previous term time absences

Leave of Absence Request Form