Attendance
Attendance has a high profile at The Open Academy. Regular attendance plays an important role in a student’s academic success and their overall personal development.
Your legal responsibility as a parent or carer is to ensure that your child or children of school age receive a suitable full-time education. Once enrolled in school, it remains the parent or carer's legal responsibility to ensure that their child attends school regularly. We expect students to attend every day of the academic year however we also recognise that there may be circumstances when a student cannot attend such as illness, family bereavement or other unavoidable situations.
Absence
Please contact the school as soon as possible to notify us of a student absence. We ask that parents call us on each day of absence to keep us updated.
Please call 01603 481640 or email student.absence@open-academy.org.uk
If you would like to discuss your child’s attendance or think we can support or help in any way please contact the year team, Mrs Wright; Attendance Officer or Mr Richardson; Senior Attendance Champion.
Punctuality
Good punctuality is important and students are expected to be in school by 8.30am and in their tutor groups at 8.40am ready for registration at 8.45am. If a pupil arrives late they will be marked L; Late arrival before the register is closed. If a student arrives after 9.15am they will be marked U; arrived in school after registration closed. This is recorded as an unauthorised absence for the morning session and effects overall school attendance.
Illness and Medical Absences
We understand that sometimes illness may prevent your child from attending school.
If you are unsure whether your child is able to attend school due to illness, please contact us and we will always try to help. The NHS website has useful information about when to keep your child at home.
We ask that medical appointments be made outside of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible evidence of appointments can be sent into school for the absence to be authorised.
We are usually only able to authorise half a day for appointments except in exceptional circumstances.
Many medical conditions can be sensitively managed in school to enable your child to continue their learning. Prescribed medications as well as some over the counter medicines, such as paracetamol, can be administered during the school day. Here is a downloadable version of the authorisation form. (Click here) These are also available from reception.
Mental Health
Mental health worries can lead to many challenges. We would always encourage parents to contact us so we can work together with regards to any anxieties around attending school.
Parents are encouraged to access all the in-school support available as well as support online and in the community.
www.nhs.uk/mental-health/children-and-young-adults/advice-for-parents/anxiety-in-children/
Support First Approach to Attendance
Where there are concerns about a student’s attendance the school will initiate the Support First Approach as a supportive measure.
We aim to offer support at the earliest opportunity. We want to understand what barriers there are and offer support and advice to help address these.
Term Time Absence including holiday
Schools can grant a leave of absence for exceptional circumstances at their discretion eg a family funeral.
Generally, the Department for Education does not consider holidays to be an exceptional circumstance. All absence requests must be made in advance by the parent that the student normally lives with.
Leave of absence request form (Click Here) This is also available from Reception. If the request is not approved and time off is still taken the school has the power to request that a Fixed Penalty Notice is issued by the local authority.
Home Visits
Home visits will be carried out where we have had no communication regarding absence or where we have not physically seen a student. We would encourage parents to maintain regular contact with school where there is some anxiety-based school absence. This may include the use of 'drive bys' where a parent brings a child onto school site to make contact with staff.
Fixed Penalty Notices 7
Section 444 of the 1996 Education Act says that parents must ensure that their child attends school regularly & on time. If a parent fails to do this the school will consider referral to the local authority to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice. This will be £160 if paid within 28 days. If paid within 21 days the amount is reduced to £80. If the penalty is not paid the local authority decide whether to prosecute.
Achievement
Absence for any reason stops students learning and there is a strong link between attendance and achievement at school. Statistically, students who have attendance below 90% are likely to receive worse GCSE grades than their peers who were rarely absent.
Children's Commissioner Missing Children, Missing Grades November 2023
