WHOLE-SCHOOL ATTENDANCE POLICY - Smithdon High School ...

A Welcome Back
It is important that on return from an absence, particularly a lengthy one, that all students
are made to feel welcome. This should include ensuring that the student is helped to catch
up on missed work and brought up to date on any information that has been passed to
the other students.
Absence notes
Notes received from parents explaining absence should be kept for a short period (4 weeks).
If there are attendance concerns about the pupil, that may require further investigation, then
the notes may need to be retained for a longer period.
Promoting attendance
The school will use opportunities as they arise to remind parents/carers, that it is their
responsibility to ensure that their children receive their education. The Home/School
agreement can be used in this way.
Holidays in term time
Holidays during term time are strongly discouraged. The school asks that family holidays are
not taken during school time, if at all possible. Any holiday period which exceeds ten days for
the academic year will be recorded as unauthorised absence, except in exceptional
circumstances. All requests for holidays in term time should be made to the Headteacher.
(Further guidance is available within the Norfolk Pupil Holiday document.)
It should be noted that all holiday requests for pupils in Year 10 and 11 will not be
authorised.
Attendance Awards
The school will use the following system to reward students who have good or improving
attendance.
Students who achieve 100% attendance in a half term will be entered in a prize draw, to be
drawn in full-school assembly.
Students achieving 100% attendance in a term will receive a certificate, presented in year
assemblies.
All students achieving 100% attendance for the year will be presented with a certificate and
gift token in the annual year group Celebration of Achievement. In addition, a similar
presentation will be made to the student who has made the most improvement in their
attendance over the course of the year.
Weekly rewards are also presented to tutor groups achieving the highest attendance for the
week and for those who achieved 100% for a complete week.
Attendance Targets
The school’s attendance last year was 93.05%
The school’s attendance target for 2010/11 is 94%.
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