Attendance

Attendance Matters

Regular school attendance is an important part of giving children the best possible start in life. The aim should be to attend 100% of the time and parents can closely monitor this through the Arbor App.

Students who miss school frequently can fall behind with their work and do less well in exams. Good attendance also shows potential employers that a young person is reliable.  

Research suggests that students who attend school regularly could also be at less risk of getting involved in antisocial behaviour or crime.

Below is a table showing how children’s percentage attendance equates to the amount of school time missed and the potential impact on achieving Grades 9-5 (A*-C) in English & Maths. 

The graph below shows the significant impact attendance has on the academic outcomes for students, which in turn plays a significant part in the future success and life opportunities of students at HRCS. This really emphasises the importance of maintaining excellent levels of attendance.

Attendance Arrangements

Morning Registration

Parents have a legal duty to make sure their child attends school and is on School property at the correct time for registration and lessons to start.

Punctuality in arriving to school and to lessons during the school day is very important and sets the tone for a professional and productive working environment.

We therefore expect all students to arrive on-site by 8.30am ready to line up at 8.40am, if they arrive after this time they will need to sign in at the School Office.

Unless there is a reasonable excuse for lateness, the following sanctions will be issued for students arriving late to School: 

1. In the first instance students will be issued with a break-time detention to be completed that day.
2. If they fail to appear for this sanction it will become a lunch-time detention followed by an after school detention if they do not complete this.
3. Three episodes of lateness in a term and each individual episode after this will result in an after school detention.

If you are aware that there will be an unavoidable lateness which is out of your control, please ensure you call the School office before 8.30am providing a clear explanation of the reason.

Absences

If your child is unwell you will need to contact the School on 01732 498120 or contact@hrcschool.org  by 8.00am to let us know, and this will be marked down in the register.  Absences will be marked as unauthorised if no reason has been given.

Medical or Dentist appointments should ideally be arranged outside of school hours however, should this not be possible we would appreciate appointments being arranged for between our registration periods i.e. between 8.00am – 12.00pm and after 12.30pm. Although this may mean a student missing a small amount of curriculum time, it ensures that the individual student attendance levels are not affected.

Other absences can only be authorised by the Senior Leadership Team, and only under exceptional circumstances. Request for Absence Form.

Unfortunately, no holiday requests will be authorised. To support parents in achieving more cost effective holidays we have extended our October half-term to two weeks, with the hope that this may reduce the travel costs usually incurred during ‘normal’ school holiday periods.

If you are planning to withdraw your child for a period of time, please ensure you have completed an absence request form which can be accessed here.

In the case of repeated absences or poor levels of attendance the school will pursue court action supported by KCC. In accordance with our policy you should be aware Penalty Notices are issued to each parent of each child and the amount of the penalty will be £120 to be paid within 28 days, reduced to £60 if paid within 21 days. Failure to pay the penalty in full at the end of the 28 day period may result in prosecution by the Attendance Service.

Monitoring Attendance

Attendance and punctuality are closely monitored and rewarded on a regular basis (each half term), particularly for students maintaining a consistently high level of attendance or demonstrating a real improvement in their attendance or punctuality.

Similarly, for those students whose attendance is inconsistent the Student Support team and Head’s of Year will provide additional support to help students improve their punctuality and attendance. This can include monitoring reports, targeted individual strategies and parental meetings as well as more formal arrangements.

For more information please refer to the Attendance Policy.