Attendance

Encouraging regular school attendance is one of the most powerful ways you can prepare your child for success - both in school and in life. When you make school attendance a priority, you help your child get better grades, develop healthy life habits, avoid dangerous behaviour and have a better chance of succeeding at school.

When students are absent for fewer days, their grades and reading skills often improve—even among those students who are struggling in school. Students who attend school regularly also feel more connected to their community, develop important social skills and friendships, and are significantly more likely to be successful and happy.

But when children are absent for an average of just two days of school per month—even when the absences are excused– it can have a negative impact.

In order to ensure we can support students to attend school as often as possible and communicate with you as effectively as possible, we have made some adaptations to our attendance procedure.

When does absence become a problem?


Reporting Absences

Please contact the school by 8am of each day of absence either by the school app "School Gateway" or by telephoning the absence line 01646 623319, please report absences only via these methods to allow us to efficiently collate known absences once registers have closed.

First Day Contact

For all students missing from school we will be making first day contact to establish the reason for absence, this is to safeguard student welfare. We apologise if you receive more than one call or an additional call where you have attempted to contact us.

Continuous Absence

If after 3 days of absence, your child has not been seen and contact has not been made with the school, we will make all reasonable enquiries to establish contact with parents/carers and the child, including making enquiries to known friends and wider family. In the event of an absence of three or more days without contact from the family, a home visit will be made, to ascertain the safety and well- being of the child and in addition to the reason for absence from school.

Ten days absence

We have a legal duty to report the absence of any student who is absent without an explanation for 10 consecutive days. If the child is not seen and contact has not been established with the named parent/carer then the local authority is notified that the child is at risk of being missing from education. The Education Welfare Officer will visit the last known address and alert key services to locate the child.

The YHT school app "School Gateway" provides a quick and easy way to communicate with us!

Frequent/Persistent Absence Procedures

We want to avoid absence wherever possible. If there are any issues preventing attendance please communicate with us. When absence first becomes a concern we will invite you in for a meeting with the school to put an action plan in place to improve attendance.

If attendance does not improve we will involve the PCC Education Welfare Service.

What you can do:

  • Set a regular bed time and morning routine

  • Lay out clothes and pack bags the night before

  • Don’t let your child stay at home unless they are truly sick- if they are; please take them to the pharmacy/GP. Keep in mind, complaints of a stomach ache or headache can be a sign of anxiety and not a reason to stay home.

  • If your child seems anxious about coming to school, speak to teachers or school counsellors and take advice on how to make him/her feel comfortable and excited about learning, please do not keep your child at home for this reason.

  • Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbour or another parent.

  • Avoid medical appointments and extended trips during the school day.