ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY POLICY

Wallington County Grammar School strives to ensure that all of its students receive a full-time education which maximises the opportunities for each student to realise their true potential.
All school staff will work with students and their families to ensure each student attends school regularly and punctually.
The school will establish an effective system of incentives and rewards which acknowledges the efforts of students to improve their attendance and timekeeping and will challenge the behaviour of those students and parents who give low priority to attendance and punctuality.

AIM
•To improve the overall percentage of students attending school.
•To make attendance and punctuality a priority for all those associated with the school including students, parents, teachers and governors.
•To develop a framework which defines agreed roles and responsibilities and promotes consistency in carrying out designated tasks.
•To provide support, advice and guidance to parents and students with respect to attendance and punctuality
•To develop a systematic approach to gathering and analysing attendance related data.
•To further develop positive and consistent communication between home and school.
•To implement a system of rewards and sanctions.
•To promote effective partnerships with the Education Welfare Service and with other services and agencies.
•To recognise the needs of the individual when planning reintegration following significant periods of absence.

Form Tutors and Year Leaders will:
o Make it clear at every opportunity how much they care about their students attending school regularly and punctually.
o Ensure that registration is taken in an orderly way to prevent errors being made (in cases where court action is taken registers are often called as evidence).
o Follow up all absences promptly – unexplained absences should be cleared within two weeks, i.e. parents have two weeks to provide a written explanation of their child’s absence. Failing to do so will most likely result in the absence being classed as unauthorised.
o Ensure that students returning from a period of absence are given a sympathetic welcome - avoiding negative actions/comments about the absence.
o To inform subject staff of relevant situations which may affect the punctuality or
attendance of a student either through the pastoral memo or at "briefing".
o Keep Key Stage Leaders and parents fully informed about absence and lateness.

Key Stage Leaders will:

•Identify patterns in punctuality and attendance
•Issue sanctions or rewards for attendance and punctuality
•Keep parents informed
•Analyse weekly attendance and punctuality for their key stage
•Work closely with AH – Pupil Progress to provide support for students and parents for cases of poor attendance and punctuality

PROCEDURES

Registration
Morning Session
1.All students are to arrive on the school site by 8.15 a.m.
2.At 8.25 a.m. staff on duty will blow whistle. Students in Y7-9 line up in form groups before being dismissed to their respective form rooms in an orderly manner; Y10,  Y11 and Sixth Form make their way to form groups without lining up.
3.The register will be collected from the school office and returned immediately after registration. No extraneous material (reply slips, letters) or information relating to students should be kept in the register other than that relating directly to their attendance and punctuality. Notes explaining absence should be kept for the duration of the academic year, if the notes are of a confidential nature then they must not be kept in the register, but filed away safely. Distributions (letters, forms etc.) will be kept in the register for absent students until their return.
4.At 8.30 a.m. form tutors take the register. Any student arriving after the register has been taken but before 8.40 a.m. is marked in late by the form tutor.
5.At 8.40 a.m. the registration should be complete. Students arriving after this time should follow the procedures as in the ‘Lateness’ section.

Lessons
1.Registration will take place at the beginning of each lesson.
2.The designated member of staff will take the register using SIMS. If a student was present in the previous session and is now absent without any explanation, it is the duty of the designated member of staff to alert the school office. The school office will contact AH Pupil Progress or the appropriate Key Stage Leader who will investigate the whereabouts of the absent student.

Afternoon Session
1.A bell will ring at 1.40 p.m. and all students will proceed to their form room to be registered with the exception of students on Games.
2.The member of staff responsible for their Games session will register students on Games.
3.Sixth Form students who do not have a lesson Period 5 or an after school commitment must attend afternoon registration but are free to leave school before 3.10 p.m., provided that they sign out in the Sixth Form Common Room.

Absence
•Students will be considered absent if they are not present during morning registration.
•Students arriving at school after the morning registration period must sign the ‘late book’, giving the time of their arrival and the reason for their lateness.  For Years 7 to 11 this is kept at the main school office and for the Sixth Form, in the office in the Sixth Form Common Room.
•Parents should inform the school by telephone or by e-mail, between 7.45 and 8.15 a.m., if their child is ill and will not be attending school. Administrative staff in the office will input the absence into the register thereby alerting the form tutor to the child’s absence.
•On their return to school a note from a parent or guardian should be given to the form teacher, explaining the nature of the illness or the reason for absence and the form tutor should change the ‘N’ to the appropriate code.
•Unexplained absence will normally be subject to the ‘First Day Contact Scheme’. Directly after morning registration, the school office will contact parents in any case of unexplained absence.
•If on the third day of unexplained absence there has been no contact with the pupil’s parents, the Form Tutor will take all reasonable steps to establish the reason for absence. If they are unsuccessful they are to inform the appropriate Year Leader.
•Concerns with regard to absence should be addressed to the appropriate Year Leader.
•Year Leaders will work with parents to ensure students are at school and where this is unsuccessful Key Stage Leaders and Assistant Headteacher (Pupil Progress) will lead on the support strategies.
•The Assistant Headteacher (Pupil Progress) and Key Stage Leader will decide on an appropriate response which could include a referral to the Borough School Attendance Officer.

Lateness
•Students are late if they are not present at the morning registration (8.30 a.m. in the morning session and the equivalent time at the beginning of the afternoon session).
•Students should be marked as late unless there is an unavoidable reason for them not being at registration at the appointed time.

Sanctions
•A student will be detained for ten minutes by their form tutor for their first late in any one half-term. If a student is late for a second time in the same half-term, the student will be detained for half an hour with their Year Leader. On the third late, the student will incur an hour detention with their Key Stage Leader. The fourth late will result in a Senior Leadership Detention. On the fifth occasion, parents and student will be invited to school to discuss the matter with the appropriate Key Stage Leader and Assistant Headteacher (Pupil Progress) and the student will incur another Senior Leadership Detention. Any further lates, will result in a Senior Leadership detention each time and individual support to address the issue.
•Absences and lates will be recorded (in half-days), on a cumulative basis on all school reports.

Rewards
Exceptional attendance will be recognised and rewarded.
Certificates and commendations will be presented to students with 100% attendance and punctuality.

Planned absence

Medical
Dental appointments, hospital visits etc. should be arranged whenever possible out of school time. When this is not possible, written notice should be given to the Form Tutor in advance of the appointment. The Signing In/Out book must be used to record the time of leaving and return.

Interviews, Open Days and Tests
Students attending university interviews must inform the Form Tutor in advance of the interview. Students should also inform Form Tutors in advance of any external tests relating to university application. Students may attend Open Days but must seek the permission of the Head of Sixth Form in advance of the date. Students are permitted to attend driving tests and theory tests providing they inform their Form Tutor in advance. Students may not miss timetabled lessons for driving lessons.

Leave of absence
In general, leave of absence will not be granted other than in exceptional circumstances, such as on compassionate grounds. An exception comprises representative activities of educational merit, e.g. musical concerts, regional or national sporting fixtures.
Family holidays will not be approved and will be recorded as ‘unauthorised absence’.
An application for leave of absence must be submitted to the Assistant Headteacher (Pupil Progress) on the appropriate form, obtainable from the school office.

Unauthorised absence
Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable and for which no “leave” has been given. The school is the authorising body for an absence.

Penalty Notices and the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003
The school’s governing body has adopted the procedures recommended by the DCSF and the London Borough of Sutton with regard to the issuing of Penalty Notices. The Education Department of the London Borough of Sutton have produced a leaflet, ‘Fixed Penalty Notices’, which outlines how and under what circumstances penalty notices will be issued. A copy of the leaflet is sent to the parents/carers of students in cases of unauthorised absence.

This policy will be evaluated at the end of each year by the Senior Leadership Team.

This policy revised January 2010.

Adopted by the Full Governing Body, 22.3.10