Attendance
Attending school regularly is one of the most important factors in your success. If your attendance is above 95%, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance to learn, grow, and achieve your goals. Falling below 90% attendance means missing the equivalent of half a year of education over your time in secondary school — a gap that can significantly impact your progress.
The graph above shows national research, on the importance of attendance on GCSE outcomes. Whilst an attendance of 90% may not seem that low, this research showed that it can reduce your child’s chances of achieving 5+ GCSEs at grade 5-9 including English and Maths from around 82% to 57%.
Things To Remember
- Always ask your parents/carers to phone the Academy on 0117 37 72703 to let us know if you are absent by 8.30am each day of absence for safeguarding reasons.
- Arrive at school on time. If you are late, sanctions may be imposed.
- Unauthorised absences may result in a penalty notice of £80 per parent, per child.
- As a result of new legislation since September 2013, the Academy is not permitted to grant leave of absence for holidays during term time, any unauthorised time off for a holiday will result in a penalty notice.
Lateness Policy
Sanctions for lateness will be imposed on a daily basis. After each late arrival an after school detention will be given. Further late arrivals will result in a meeting with the Attendance Officer. Late arrivals after the register has closed will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. Parents will be notified of any late arrivals by a text message.
Attendance Policy
After 6 unauthorised absence sessions (A day is made up of 2 sessions AM/PM) within a 10 week period a penalty notice warning letter will be sent to parents/carers. 6 unauthorised absence sessions could be comprised of 3 full days or 6 half days, including lateness after the register has closed. If there are 2 further unauthorised absences within a 10 week period a penalty notice application will be made.
Parents of students with poor attendance can expect to be asked to attend a meeting in school to discuss the reasons and agree a strategy to make improvements.
Sickness
If your child is sick please call the attendance line on 0117 37 72703 before 8:30am to advise; providing details of the type of illness. If your child is sick for more than one day you will need to call on each morning of the absence to advise.
Many students feel unwell but are able to make it into the academy if they take medication such as painkillers before coming in. If you need support with knowing if your child is too ill for school then use this guidance:
Should I keep my child off school guidance
Medical Appointments
If you do need to make a medical appointment for your child please try and arrange appointments for before, or after school. If students are well enough to attend school before and/or after the appointment, then they should be attending BBA.
Term Time Leave
As per current regulations and DfE advice on school attendance (2013) we would like to advise you that the Principal will not grant any Leave of Absence in term time unless exceptional circumstances exist. By exceptional we mean rare, significant, unavoidable and short. By unavoidable, we mean an event that could not reasonably be arranged at another time.
Please click here for more information, and to download a Leave of Absence Request Form.
