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Attendance
The best thing you can do to make sure your child achieves well
Regular attendance at school is the key to a student's success in education. We ask all families to support their children by making sure that they attend school daily and on time. Our curriculum is designed on a 'spiral' model with each lesson building on the knowledge and skills taught in the previous one. When students are absent from a lesson, it can be difficult for them to catch up as they have missed the opportunities provided in the previous lesson to understand the prior knowledge that has been taught. Whilst our teachers do their very best to support students to catch up if they have been away, they are not able to replicate the entire lesson that has been missed.
We know that the students who attend regularly are consistently the ones who make the most progress in their studies. Our analysis of our GCSE and A Level results shows this every year as well as the records we have of internal examinations in lower year groups. Please support your child by making sure that they have an excellent attendance record.
If your child cannot attend school for any reason, please telephone us on 020 8864 8544 to tell us on the first morning they will be absent, preferably before 8:30am. If you are aware in advance that they will be absent, for example for an orthodontic appointment, please let us know as soon as you can.
Please see the sections below for more information about attendance.
Occasional absence
If your child is too unwell to attend school, please telephone us before 8:30am. If your child is absent and we do not know about it, you will be called by our automated system. This system calls repeatedly until you answer.
Repeated Absence
If your child’s attendance level becomes of concern you will be notified. This will usually be if their attendance falls below 96%. Over a whole school year this means if they have 7 or more days off school. You will be contacted before your child has missed 7 days of school to discuss the reasons why. We will work with you to support improvements but we will be unable to authorise further absences unless medical evidence is provided.
Appointments
Please make all medical, dental and other appointments outside of school hours. Occasionally an appointment during school time is unavoidable, such as with hospital appointments. Please let us know about any appointments as soon as possible and provide us with a copy of the appointment letter. Your child should still attend school on the day of the appointment and will be given permission to arrive late or leave early if necessary. If the appointment is in the middle of the day we expect your child to attend school first and return to school afterwards.
Holidays in Term Time
Holidays in term time cannot be authorised except in exceptional circumstances. If you believe your circumstances mean you have to take your child out of school, you must apply in writing at your earliest possible opportunity, using the Leave of Absence Application. Your application will be considered and we will write back to you to let you know the outcome.
And finally . . .
If you have any concerns or questions, please do give us a call.
Downloads
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