Attendance

REMEMBER: TELEPHONE US ON THE FIRST DAY OF ABSENCE.

To report a student absent, parent(s)/carer(s) must notify school by calling 01744 678123 (option 2)
and either leaving a message, or speaking to one of the Attendance team.

From January 2024, we no longer accept texts or emails to notify us of absences.
Calls should be made to notify school between 7.00-8.30am.

We will still text you if your child is absent.

You may receive a telephone call on the first day of absence from a member of the attendance/pastoral team. This is a courtesy call and is supportive. It is to discuss any issues and to offer any support. Please do not worry if you receive one of these calls, they are common practice.

Good attendance at school is acknowledged as a major factor in students’ development. Poor attendance leads to disrupted learning and causes under-achievement. Therefore, we ask that parents make every effort to ensure their children’s attendance is as high as possible.

It is a parent(s)/carer(s) responsibility to contact school before 9am on the first day of absence.

Rewarding good attendance and punctuality.

From November, any student who has 100% attendance fortnightly will receive a R4 award on Class Charts (this equates to +10 positive points).
Individual year groups have continuous weekly rewards for attendance.

Attendance is taken into account in end of term and end of year rewards trips.

Sanctioning poor attendance/punctuality

We want to work together in a positive way to ensure your child is with us every school, on time. We will always use bespoke, supportive strategies to work with you to improve attendance and punctuality. However, like all schools we will apply sanctions as necessary if absences and lates are unauthorised. Attendance and punctuality is a serious issue and it would be remiss of us not to apply serious consequences when necessary.

Lates

Your child should be in school no later than 8.30am for Form. Form is very important as it is an opportunity for Literacy intervention, Personal Development sessions as well as daily Sacred Time and preparation for the day.

If your child is late to school before 8.45am, their Form Teacher will keep them on a breaktime detention that day.

If your child is late after 8.45am they must sign in at the ‘late desk’ at Reception to have a supportive conversation, you will receive a message and Pastoral staff will issue a same-day lunch time detention. We appreciate your support in helping to ensure that your child is in school on time.

Fixed penalty notices

A reminder that in conjunction with St Helens Education Welfare Service, a Fixed penalty notice will be issued for:

• 20 unauthorised absences
• 10 late marks in a 10-week period

Further information about unauthorised absences can be found in our school attendance policy here.

Authorised (approved reasons) absences from school are shown below:

• Genuine illness.
• Attending a funeral.
• Unavoidable Hospital, Doctor, Dentist Appointments.
• Religious observance.

The School, LEA and Government are concerned about unauthorised or unacceptable absences. These include:

• Taking holidays during term time.
• Truancy.
• Feeling ill but could have attended school.
• Staying home to look after a relative.
• Going shopping.
• Any other Absences deemed unnecessary by the School Attendance Officer.

Education is your human right, don’t waste it …

Being off school really damages your future …

Did you know?
Students who miss between 10% of school (that’s 20 days per year) stand only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% of those who miss fewer than 5% of school days.

School is a gift, use it …

Did you know?

Approximately 76 million children across the globe do not have access to education.

Count yourself lucky. Come to school.

We want you here …

You belong here

Is your child persistently absent?

What is classed as persistent absence?

​Persistent Absence is classed as any absence that equates to over 10% of the academic year at any given time.

It is important to remember that 90% on a test is seen as a positive achievement however in attendance terms anything less than 90% is a serious concern.  The reason for this is shown below in the number of days missed by persistently absent students.

With the support of St Helens EWS, school tracks and monitors our persistently absent students closely offering support and strategies to improve individuals attendance.

90% Attendance

They will, on average:

• Miss ½ of a day per week
• Miss 20 days in a school year
• That’s 4 weeks!
• Miss 100 lessons!

Achievement

Research suggests that 17 missed school days a year is equal to 1 GCSE grade drop in achievement.

That could be the difference between a grade 5 and a grade 4 or a grade 9 and a grade 8 in Maths or English.

Improving your child’s attendance will help them achieve their true potential.

Punctuality

Why is arriving on time important?

This is why…

We have a dedicated team of staff at St Cuthbert’s who work on Attendance; we have 2 Attendance Officers, Pastoral Staff and Farne Staff, and we work closely with St Helens Education Welfare Services.

We offer a breakfast club from 8.00-8.30am offering free breakfast to all of our students.

We share your child’s attendance with them regularly and speak with them about the importance of good attendance.

We want your child here with us during the school day. Our Attendance staff are always happy to offer advice and support to students, parents and families on effective strategies for improving attendance. One example of this is the support that we can offer from our Academic Mentor to help close any gaps in knowledge that your child may have if they have not attended regularly. If you would like more details please do not hesitate to contact School.

We offer rewards to encourage your child to attend regularly. These are termly, ending with an invitation to our rewards trip at the end of the year.

Is my child too ill to attend school?

In most cases, we would recommend that if your child is feeling a little under the weather first thing in the morning that you encourage them to attend school, and we will monitor them throughout the day.

If their condition worsens, we will contact you to collect them. However, we understand that it can be a difficult decision to decide if your child is too ill to attend.

We want to share this guidance from the NHS to support you in your decision:
Is my child too ill for school?

If your child is absent:

It is a parent(s)/carer(s) responsibility to contact school before 9am on the first day of absence.

How to improve your child’s school attendance and where to get support.

Attendance: How can parents/carers help?

We ask for the support of our parents/carers in supporting good attendance by:

• Promote positive and healthy attendance patterns with your child and set good bedtime and morning routines.
• Ensure your child attends every day, on time and equipped and ready to learn.
• Ensure school has at least 3 up-to-date addresses and contact numbers.
• Contact School on the first day of absence by 9:00am to provide a reason for absence.
• Contact the school each day of absence until your child returns.
• If contact is not made the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. The school is responsible for deciding if the absence is acceptable or not.
• Provide medical evidence for any absence exceeding 5 days (10 sessions) or more.
• Ensure medical appointments are made outside of school time. If this is not possible, your child needs to be in school prior to and after the appointment. We will need medical evidence upon their return.
• Holiday requests during term time will not be authorised due to the significant impact on progress. Parents/carers who take their children out of school for a holiday may be issued with a Penalty Notice.
• Contact school if you are experiencing difficulty getting your child to attend school.
• Work with the school and any other agencies of support to resolve any difficulties which may affect regular school attendance.

Where absence is unavoidable, the School is very happy to ensure that work is provided so that our students do not fall behind in their progress.