Attendance

The Governors and staff of Herschel Grammar School are committed to providing a full and effective education for all our students to ensure they achieve their potential in all that they do. We believe that all students benefit from the education we provide and from regular and punctual school attendance and good behaviour.

Pupils with no absence are 2.2 times more likely to achieve 5 or more GCSEs or equivalent at grades 9 - 4 including English and mathematics and 4.7 times more likely to achieve the English Baccalaureate than pupils missing 10-15 per cent of KS4 sessions. Therefore, overall absence has been shown to have a statistically significant negative link to attainment.

At Herschel, we will encourage good attendance by:

Accurately completing attendance registers at the beginning of each session and within 10-15 minutes of the start of the session
Follow-up absence within one day; a first day absence telephone call will be made or text sent during period one if a student is absent without authorisation; if there is no contact via the telephone numbers provided a letter/email will be sent home requesting authorisation.
Undertaking attendance checks at appropriate times; attendance reports to be used on a daily basis to check students who have registered but who have not attended all five lessons; weekly follow up of the year group attendance issues using percentage reports/unauthorised student absence figures.
Collecting data for student reports and sending parents/carers attendance figures and contacting parents when attendance is of concern and below 95%
Collecting data on attendance for the whole school and by year group and making this available to governors and parents on request.
Working closely with the pastoral team to monitor students of concern.

Request for Leave of Absence

Under education law, parents do not have an automatic right to take their children out of school during term time. The school holiday dates are published a year in advance and parents are expected to arrange their family holidays during those times.

Requests for leave of absence for family holidays, in line with government guidelines, will normally not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances. Leave of absence should be requested at least one month in advance. The parent will be advised of the school’s decision in writing. If the leave of absence request is denied and the student is absent during the requested period, the parent may be liable to receive a fixed penalty notice from the Local Authority. Penalty notices are issued on a ‘per parent per student’ basis.

Please download the Leave of Absence form below to request a leave of absence during term time.

Medical appointments

In order to promote high attendance, it would be desirable to book medical appointments out of school hours. However, if medical appointments are needed during the school day, we expect pupils to be in school before/after the appointment to maximise their learning in school. When there is a medical appointment, please write a note in your child’s planner and then they will show this to the form tutor on the morning of the appointment. If a medical appointment is first thing in the morning, please notify the school through the app or email.

If students use school transport / public transport, parents need to put alternative arrangements in place to get their child to school before or after an appointment. Otherwise, this will be classed as an unauthorised absence.

attendancegraphic