Attendance and Punctuality

Heart of England School recognises the clear link between attendance, academic success and safeguarding. Students are expected to attend at all times by law. Plenty of information justifies our insistence upon high attendance levels, the most significant of which is student attainment. Department for Education research in 2016 showed that students with no absence are more than twice as likely to achieve five or more GCSEs at Grade 5 or better; they were also almost three times as likely to achieve five or more good GCSEs including English and Mathematics. Your child is expected to have an attendance figure of 96% or above.

Each student is registered at the beginning of the day and the beginning of each lesson throughout the day.

Students arriving at their tutor room after 8.55am will be recorded as late to school (unless a school bus is late). Students, therefore, need to be on school grounds by 8.50am to enable them to do this.

Parents/Carers will be asked to come into school for a meeting with the Attendance Officer and the Assistant Principal (Mr Haston) if their child is repeatedly late to school or has unauthorised absences.

We ask parents to contact the school before 8.30am on the first day and any further days of a student’s absence by:

• emailing absence@heart-england.co.uk or
• logging on to INSIGHT or
• phoning the School Absence Line 01676 535222

The reasons for student absence should be clearly stated in the email, INSIGHT  or phone message. Absences not explained in this way are officially recorded as unauthorised.

If we do not have a reason for your child’s absence, a first text message will be sent before 10.45am. If we receive no further communication, a second text message is sent before 2.30pm. If we do not hear from you at this point, the attendance will be unauthorised, and a warning letter will be emailed.

If a student accrues a high level of unauthorised absences, the local authority can issue a fixed penalty notice of £60.00, increasing to £120.00.

Students will only be allowed to leave the premises during the school day if they have an Authorised Pass. A  request for absence can be sent in the ways outlined above; however, you cannot request on the day that is required for your child to leave the school.

The best and most productive environment for your child is to be in school.

Mr Haston
Assistant Principal