Content
Attendance
The College has a team of Attendance Officers whose role is to liase between parents, students and the pastoral and curriculum staff to ensure that children attend College everyday. Each year group has a dedicated Attendance Officer who monitors every child's attendance. Each months attendance is recorded on the 'attendance banding report'. Depending which band a child is placed in, will trigger and intervention strategy designed to improve attendance. Attendance Officers regularly make home visits and the minimum level of attendance the college will accept is 95%
Every child at Wright Robinson College matters. The most important factor contributing to your child’s success at College is 95% attendance. The link between attendance and attainment is firmly established. Those students who attend more achieve greater qualifications and are more able to access higher education, employment or training.
One of the most important changes the College has made to its Attendance Policy is the introduction of an Attendance Improvement Model – known in the College as the ‘Banding Report’. Your child’s attendance is monitored every four weeks. On the basis of their attendance they are placed into a coloured band. Students in different bands receive different interventions designed to improve their attendance and therefore enable them to achieve the best possible educational outcomes. The Attendance Improvement Model is summarised overleaf.
Routines & Preparation
Ensure that your child is up sufficiently early in the morning to get to College without being late. Help your child organise themselves the night before by ensuring that their school bag is packed and ready to go. Ensure that your child is well rested by getting them to bed at an appropriate time.
Medical & Dental Appointments
Medical and dental appointments rarely last more than 1 hour but many parents allow their child to be absent from College for the whole session or day. This is unacceptable. Parents are advised where possible to make medical and dental appointments outside of the College day. Where this is not possible, students should attend College for part of the day. Parents should show the appointment card to College in order for their child to leave College at a particular time. The loss of a single day will reduce your child’s attendance in any single week by 20%.
Holidays
Parents are strongly advised to avoid taking their children on holiday during term time. Parents do not have an automatic right to remove their child from College during term time for the purpose of a holiday and you should be aware that if your child is absent for 10 College days they will miss 5% of their education during that academic year. At least 95% attendance will be required in order for a family holiday to be authorised. For the 2009 autumn term, your child’s attendance in the previous year will be used to decide whether a holiday is authorised.
Illness
This is a sensitive area. However, the College does have a right to challenge parents as to whether their child is genuinely ill. It is the College which authorises absence for illness not the parent or carer. Many students are allowed to be absent from school with a headache or because they are just feeling unwell. Consequently, it is sometimes necessary to ask for evidence of ill health such as copy of your child’s prescription or a medical appointment card. A parent whose child is genuinely ill should not be concerned as their child will have taken medical advice and this medical advice can be presented to the College. If your child is feeling ‘under the weather’ but not sick enough to attend the doctor they should be encouraged to come to College. Attendance at one lesson is far better than attendance at none at all. Naturally, students who are genuinely ill will be sent home following consultation with yourself.