Absence and Latecoming
Why is Attendance at School Important?
Excellent attendance at school is critical to a young person’s chances of success in education and then in opportunities after school.
All absences have an impact on a young person’s progress in school. To support all young people to have the best attendance, and therefore better outcomes in their education, we work closely with families at the earliest opportunity.
Even seemingly low levels of absence can have a big impact.
An attendance figure of 90% might sound good, but if you add that up over the year it equates to 1 month of education missed.
Attendance (at school) | Days absent per session | Impact on young people |
100% | 0 days | Best chance of success |
95% | 10 days (nearly 2 school weeks) | |
90% | 19 days (1 month within the school session) | Less chance of success, progress will be harder |
85% | 29 days (more than 5 school weeks) | Serious implications on learning and progress |
80% | 38 days (more than 7 school weeks) | |
75% | 47 days (9 school weeks) |
Reporting an Absence
If your child is going to be absent, please contact the school to let us know how long they will be absent for and the reason for the absence.
You can do this by phoning on 01592 583408 and selecting option 1.
If your child is absent and we have not heard from you, we will be in contact via groupcall. Please contact the school if you receive one of these messages. You can respond by texting back to the groupcall or by phoning the school.
If you don’t respond to the groupcall, one of the team will seek to make contact that day by phone.
We follow this process twice a day, in the morning and after lunch. Where necessary we may do this more often.
Absences which go longer than three days without an explanation will be followed up by a visit to the home by our family support worker. If they cannot make contact, then we will work with partner agencies to ensure the young person is safe and well and coordinate any support the family may need.
Latecoming
Any young person who is late in returning to school after interval or lunch will receive a groupcall text home to alert home that this has happened. We welcome any communication with us about this, especially if it becomes a recurring issue.
Reducing Absence
We always seek to enter into open discussion with families when absence begins to pose a problem. We will always seek to work with the family to support improved attendance. When attendance levels dip below 90% our support team will seek to make contact with the family to discuss steps that can be taken to support improving attendance. If attendance continues to fall then a meeting at school to find a solution will be called. If attendance continues to fall after this then a wellbeing meeting will be called with partner agencies to increase the level of support available to reduce a young person’s level of absence.
Please find the link below for Viewforth High School’s Attendance Policy:
