Attendance
First and foremost, attendance is the key to success
To enable both parents/carers and Northampton School for Girls to effectively work together on securing excellent attendance for all it is crucial that the expectations for school attendance, and the relevant procedures, are shared with you. This can be found here in the Department for Education’s ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ document (Published May 2022) and here for the ‘Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance’ (Published May 2022). However, for ease of reference please refer to the extract taken below:
“The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education other than at a school.” (p6, ‘Working together to improve school attendance’, Department for Education)”
The school is dedicated to working alongside parents/carers and key stakeholders to best support them in fulfilling this legal requirement via the school’s enhanced attendance procedure detailed below with the aim to achieve 97% attendance across the school year.
Student’s tutor, pastoral officer and head of academic standards will work closely with parents/carers to identify, understand and overcome any barriers to a student’s attendance to school in line with the procedure stated below as well as working together to overcome/lessen any specific barriers unique to individual students and their families.
Why is attendance so crucial to success?
At Northampton School for Girls we believe that everyday is essential. Consistent attendance supports students in the following ways:
- Establishes consistency in their learning, allowing for greater momentum in developing their confidence within their academic progress and outcomes.
- Allows students to receive effective and timely support from the school to enable students to overcome barriers to learning, which in turn supports progress.
- Provides a healthy routine; promoting positive mental health and well being.
- Facilitates the strengthening of relationships amongst their peers as well as their social and emotional development.
What can parents/carers do to support positive attendance?
A positive working relationship between parents/carers and the school is fundamental to supporting positive attendance. As such parents/carers can support their daughter’s positive attendance in the following ways.
- Communicate with the school, specifically your daughter's tutor, pastoral officer and head of academic standards, whenever there is a barrier to their daughter attending school. This can include, but not limited to, medical, emotional, academic or social concerns. A list of key contacts can be found here.
- Encourage positive attendance at home and communicate the benefits of attendance.
- Encourage your daughter to engage with the school to share any barriers to attendance so that we can work together to overcome them.
- If your daughter is unwell, but able to attend school with the support of over the counter or home remedies, encourage them to do so.
- Utilising Edulink to track your daughter’s attendance, celebrating positive attendance while also highlighting worrying trends of absence.
- Engage with all support and reasonable adjustments agreed with the school to promote positive attendance.
How do I request absence during term time?
We actively discourage parents/carers from requesting absence during term time, however if this is not possible then it is important to note that following amendments to the Education (Student Registration) (England) 2006 regulations, from 1 September 2013 the law gives no entitlement to parents/carers to take their child on holiday or leave during term time. Any application for leave must only be in exceptional circumstances and the Headteacher must be satisfied that the circumstances are exceptional and warrant the granting of leave. Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday or leave as exceptional.
To request a leave of absence during term time please email the school as early as possible. Each case will be reviewed individually, resulting in parents/carers receiving the decision in writing.
Attendance support procedures
Below is an outline of the support procedures used by Northampton School for Girls to address concerns regarding students attendance. In some cases, due to sudden significant absence or unique circumstances, alternative arrangements may occur inline with school and local authority procedures.
