The School Day

Attendance

Reporting an absence can be done via Class Charts under the attendance tab, or email attendance@thehambleschool.co.uk

​At The Hamble School, we believe that every child gets one chance to get the best education. If they are not in school, they are not learning. Every day counts. Excellent and regular attendance is essential in order for a child’s education to be successful. It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their child attends school. We thank those parents that ensure that attendance is above 95%. Absence from school should only occur in the extreme of circumstances and holidays taken in term time will not be authorised.

There is an impact due to any drop in attendance with regards to the number of days of learning that are lost.  A child who is absent a day of school per week misses an equivalent of two years of their school life.

Why is regular attendance so important?

Learning:

Attendance below 95% can adversely affect the academic progress of your child and limit their social development as they have reduced access to activities that promote this. There is a direct correlation between excellent attendance and student outcomes. Evidence shows that those students with attendance above 95% make significantly positive progress. Whereas those below 95% do not make as much progress as those with similar abilities across the country. 90% of young people with absence rates below 85% fail to achieve five or more good grades of GCSE and around one third achieve no GCSEs at all

In addition, if your child is frequently absent he/she will not be able to take full advantage of the many activities and opportunities that are on offer at The Hamble School to help them grow into well-rounded young adults.

Safeguarding:

Your child may be at risk of harm if he/she does not attend school regularly. Frequent absence or truancy may expose your child to health and safety risks, which may have serious consequences for his/her behaviour and welfare.

The Law:

All children of compulsory school age are required to receive an education and, as parents/carers, you are responsible for ensuring that your child receives an education. You risk criminal prosecution if your child fails to attend school regularly. The Hamble School work in partnership with Hampshires Legal Intervention Team (LIT) in supporting those parents/carers of children with poor attendance records to overcome problems, and applying sanctions if parents/carers refuse to comply wit the law. At The Hamble School, if a students attendance levels drop, we have a legal responsibility to investigate to find out why and to help improve matters quickly.

There are a number of legal measures that the Local Authority can pursue, these include:

  • being issued a voluntary parenting contract
  • receiving a penalty notice. This is a fine of £60 per parent/carer for periods of unauthorised absence such as truancy, holidays in term time, lateness, unauthorised absence during formal exams, schools assessment or testing or poor patterns of attendance/punctuality
  • being prosecuted in the Magistrates’ Court. This means you could receive a community order, a fine of up to £2,500 per parent/carer or a custodial sentence, your child being issued with an education supervision order. This is an order where the child attends court and certain measures are put in place regarding attendance at school.

How parents/carers can encourage good attendance?

Regular attendance requires parents and carers, children, and school staff to work together. Staying connected with schools means parents and carers can quickly identify any potential difficulties their child may be facing and understand the support available. Families can take various steps to support school attendance, including:

  • expect your child to go to school every day and ensure that your child knows this
  • creating opportunities for children to talk about their time at school
  • staying up to date with all communications from school
  • attending school open evenings and functions
  • checking that children understand and are regularly completing their homework, and speaking with their child’s school if they or their child are encountering issues with completing the homework that has been set
  • avoiding school absences where possible – for example, by arranging GP and dental appointments outside of school hours
  • building consistent bedtime routines – sleeping well, for the right length of time, helps improve energy levels, mood and concentration
  • establishing good morning routines at home to help children arrive at school on time, having had a good breakfast and ready to start the day
  • staying alert to signs of distress or challenging behaviours in response to going to school, and reaching out for help as soon as possible if there are any concerns
  • approach the school sooner rather than later, if you have issues with attendance.
  • if your child’s attendance could be attributed to emotional wellbeing, please contact a member of the pastoral team who can refer to appropriate support.

Absence for Illnesses

A polite reminder that Government guidelines state that the authorising of any absence from school is at the discretion of the individual setting and not an automatic right.

There remain a lot of absences for common coughs and colds. Please treat with some paracetamol/Calpol prior to the school day. A top-up can always be provided during the day by the School Matron, then if your child becomes worse after this, contact can be made with yourselves to arrange collection.

Hampshire County Council guidance states if your child has no temperature but has a cough, cold, headache, earache, sore throat, then as with adults, the medical advice is to give them paracetamol and send them to school. We are likely to challenge an absence if these are given as reasons. We will always contact you if your child’s condition worsens or if we believe their illness is contagious such as Chickenpox, vomiting, etc.

For long term or repeated illness, it may be necessary for us to request medical evidence advising that the student is unfit to attend. This is a key part of our safeguarding duties. Please note that the Education Act 1996 places the responsibility on parents/carers to provide medical evidence when requested by the school. There is an ‘Information Sharing Consent Form’ available from GP practice where a parent can give consent for the GP to share information about their child.

Please see the following link for guidance from the NHS on when to keep students home unwell: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Home Visits

We are under increasing pressure to ensure that students are attending school, with a minimum expectation of 95% attendance. As a school, we have a policy that when a student’s attendance is low, no reason is given for absence, or we are repeatedly told they are unwell without details or medical evidence, we will seek further clarification of these reasons. We may carry out home visits to do this. It could be conducted at any stage of an absence to help support a student coming back into school. These may be arranged in advance or unannounced.

Absence for holiday

Children have 13 weeks annual holiday from school and school holiday dates are published well in advance on the school website. As such, all parents/carers are expected wherever possible to plan and take their family holidays at this time so as not to disrupt their children’s education. Education law states that parents do not have a right to take their child out of school for a holiday during term time. Only in exceptional circumstances may a headteacher grant permission for leave; and it is the headteachers decision on whether the absence is exceptional and how many days to approve.

FIXED PENALTY NOTICE INFORMATION

For more information – click here

REQUEST FOR ABSENCE

Absence Form – Download (PDF)

Parent guidance

A parent/carer guide can be found here from the Department of Education. This outlines parent/carer responsibilities and advice on how schools and parents/carers can work together to improve attendance – Download (PDF)

The DFE has also produced this ‘What I need to know about attendance’ guide – here

Support available

If you would like to discuss your child’s attendance in more detail please contact their tutor, Progress Leader or Miss Hoey (Attendance Officer).

Our Student Wellbeing page provides an extensive list of resources that may be useful in supporting you with some of the barriers to good attendance – here

For additional guidance on general school attendance management please visit the Hampshire County Council website – here

(Click the images for a larger view)

Attendance Matters
Punctuality