Attendance

Full attendance and punctuality is very important if your child is to learn and achieve their potential.
Long or frequent absences disrupt learning and it is extremely difficult to catch up on what has been missed.
You have a legal duty to ensure your child attends school.

Absence from school can really only be justified if your child is ill.

Holyrood Academy will ensure that:

• Students are registered accurately and efficiently.
• Attendance targets are set for individual students, year groups and the whole Academy.
• Parents/carers are contacted when reasons for absence are unknown or unauthorised.
• Student lateness and absence is monitored regularly.
• Attendance problems are discussed and intervention/support is carried out where there are concerns.
• Excellent attendance is rewarded.
• Academy attendance statistics are reported to the Local Authority.

Students will be encouraged to:

• Attend the Academy regularly.
• Inform staff if there is a problem that may lead to absences.
• Arrive at the Academy on time every day, giving explanation if they are late for any reason.
• Maintain excellent attendance of over 96%.

Your child must arrive at the Academy by 8:30am in order to be in their lesson and ready to learn at 8.35am.

Parents/Carers must:

• Encourage good attendance and punctuality.
• Inform the school on the first and each subsequent day of absence giving suitable explanation. On the student’s return to the Academy you must provide a letter explaining the absence.
• Discuss planned absence with the Academy in advance and follow our guidance on holidays in term times.

• Attend a meeting with the pastoral team if their child’s attendance levels fall below that deemed necessary for efficient full-time education.

Holiday Absence

No holiday absence will be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances that have been fully outlined to the Academy in advance. Please do not unilaterally book holidays because they will not be authorised and could lead to a fine and further legal action. At the Academy we will work very hard to ensure maximum success for your children. We need them in lessons working to the maximum of their ability for the whole Academy year.

Persistent Absence (PA)

From the beginning of the academic year, 2015 to 2016, the government reduced the persistent absence threshold from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. Therefore, a student is considered to have persistent absence if their attendance falls below 90%.This means that school will be closely monitoring students who are not achieving an overall attendance of 90%

If your child has to miss school, you must, if at all possible, telephone the Academy office immediately on: 01460 260100