Attendance | Frithealadh

This is an abbreviated policy for our school’s context. A link to the Highland Council Attendance Policy is provided at the end of this document where detailed information can be found regarding the guidelines surrounding unexplained absences and persistent absences.

Aims

This policy aims to show our commitment to meeting our obligations with regards to school attendance, including those laid out in Education Scotland’s Included, engaged and involved part 1: promoting and managing school attendance through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:

Setting high expectations for the attendance and punctuality of all pupils.
Promoting good attendance and the benefits of good attendance.
Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence.
Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled.
Acting early to address patterns of absence.
Building strong relationships with families to make sure pupils have the support in place to attend school.

Roles and responsibilities

The head teacher

The head teacher is responsible for:

The implementation of this policy.
Monitoring school-level absence data and reporting it to West Highland Area Education Manager where appropriate.
Supporting staff with monitoring the attendance of individual pupils.
Monitoring the impact of any implemented attendance strategies.
Collaborating with the parents of pupils to develop specific support approaches for attendance for pupils who face in-school barriers.
Communicating with the local authority when a pupil with a Child’s Plan has falling attendance, or where there are barriers to attendance that relate to the pupil’s needs.
Communicating the school’s high expectations for attendance and punctuality regularly to pupils and parents through all available channels.

The designated senior leader responsible for attendance

The Depute Head is responsible for:

Leading, championing and improving attendance across the school.
Setting a clear vision for improving and maintaining good attendance.
Evaluating and monitoring expectations and processes.
Having a strong grasp of absence data and oversight of absence data analysis.
Regularly monitoring and evaluating progress in attendance.
Establishing and maintaining effective systems for tackling absence and making sure all staff follows them.
Liaising with pupils, parents/carers and external agencies, where needed.
Building close and productive relationships with parents to discuss and tackle attendance issues.
Delivering targeted intervention and support to pupils and families.
Providing regular attendance reports to school staff and reporting concerns about attendance to the headteacher.

Class Teachers

Class teachers are responsible for recording attendance every lesson on a daily basis, using the correct codes and submitting this information to the school office within the first 5 minutes of a lesson.

School admin staff

Office staff will:

Take calls from parents/carers about absence on a day-to-day basis and record it on the school system.
Transfer calls from parents/carers to the Depute or PT Guidance where appropriate, in order to provide them with more detailed support on attendance.

Parents

Parents are expected to:

Make sure their child attends every day on time.
Call the school to report their child’s absence before 08:45 on the day of the absence and advise when they are expected to return.
Provide the school with more than one emergency contact number for their child.
Ensure that, where possible, appointments for their child are made outside of the school day.

Pupils

Pupils are expected to:

Attend school every day, on time.
Attend every timetabled session, on time.

Lateness and punctuality

We promote and support punctuality in attending lessons. Our school week is 33 periods, including 7 x 50 minute periods between Monday and Thursday, and 5 x 50 minutes on a Friday. A pupil who arrives late:

Before the register has closed will be marked as late, using the appropriate code.
After the register has closed will be marked as absent, using the appropriate code.

We would like to emphasise the importance of knowing the whereabouts of absent pupils. This is because we have a responsibility for the care and welfare of all pupils during the school day. Schools are required to keep an attendance register by law, and to record an attendance in respect of each morning and afternoon of every school day.

Recording attendance

Attendance register

We will keep an electronic attendance register within SEEMIS and place all pupils onto this register.

We are legally required to take our attendance register at the start of the first session of each school day and once during the second session. It will mark, using the appropriate Local Authority attendance and absence codes from SEEMIS, whether every pupil is:

Attending an approved off-site educational activity.
Absent (authorised).
Absent (unauthorised).

The school day starts at 08:50 and ends at 15:40.

Pupils must arrive in school by 08:50 on each school day.

The register for the first session will be taken at 08:50 and will be kept open until 09:00. The register will be taken during the first 5 minutes of each lesson thereafter.

Good attendance is vital if pupils are to achieve their full potential. But if a pupil is absent from school, a parent or guardian should phone or email the school on each day of absence unless there has been prior notification.

If a pupil is absent and we have not received a phone call or email, you will be contacted by the School Office to confirm reasons for absence.

If parents know in advance of an absence/late arrival, then they should contact their child’s Guidance Teacher seeking the Education Authority permission to be absent detailing the planned absence. Confirmation should be given to the school office explaining the reason for the proposed absence and requesting that it be considered an ‘authorised absence.’

Medical and dental appointments

Where possible, medical, and dental appointments should be made out with school hours. However, it is recognised that this is not always possible. If a pupil has a medical appointment or must leave the premises for some other reason, they must report to the School Office to ‘Sign Out.’ This can be done in advance before registration or during break. If returning the same day, they must again report to the Office to ‘Sign In.’

Where a pupil has an unacceptably high rate of absence, the parents will be contacted by the school. Unexplained or condoned absences leading to a pattern of unsatisfactory attendance will be reported to the Area Education Manager.

Unplanned absence

The pupil’s parent or carer must notify the school of the reason for the absence on the first day of an unplanned absence by 08:30 or as soon as practically possible, by calling the school office staff or leaving a message, via telephone on 01397700105.

We will mark absence due to illness as authorised.

For a more detailed policy, please read the Highland Council Attendance Policy.