Attendance

Why attendance is so important?

Regular school attendance has always been a key priority for us here at Ash Green School, we want to work together to improve attendance of our students.

Good school attendance is key to helping students achieve the best possible grades and maximizes their potential learning opportunities.

In recognition that school attainment and attendance are strongly linked, we would like to remind all students and their parents/carers of our expectations.

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Ways to tell us about anything that is affecting your child’s attendance:

1. Email or speak directly to the attendance team
2. Contact your child’s form Tutor
3. Contact your child’s Head of Year or Pastoral Manager

The AGS team work together with students and their families to improve students’ attendance and address any barriers to attendance. We have launched an exciting rewards programme and tutor group league table which has led to our tutor groups improving their attendance since the launch last term.  We work with students who are persistently absent to mentor them and provide them with the individual support that they need, this has resulted in an average of 60% of these persistently absent students improving their attendance. In addition to this we run the Routes and Pathways programmes to support students to improve their attendance.  Every student’s attendance is tracked, and we put support and intervention in place at the earliest opportunity.

Support to help your child catch up if they are absent from school:

At AGS we want every student to attend every lesson, but we do appreciate there are times when absence from school is unavoidable. We support all students to catch up if they have missed any learning time, every lesson is available via TEAMS so that your child can work through the same curriculum as their peers. When your child returns to school their teacher will take time during the start of the lesson to make sure your child is prepared for the lesson ahead.

Attendance Rewards

Punctuality

Students are expected to arrive on school site by 08:30hrs each morning. On occasion, unavoidable lateness will happen, please inform the school office if this is the case.

Students arriving late to school without communication from parent/carers will result in a 30 minute same day detention.

In the event a student arrives post registration, the student will be registered as an unauthorised absence. Punctuality is monitored closely and plays a crucial role in students achievement. Persistently late students will trigger additional monitoring.

Lateness reduces learning time

• If your child is 5 minutes late every day they will miss three days of learning each year.
• If your child is 15 minutes late every day they will miss two weeks of learning each year.

Medical Appointments

Routine visits to the dentist, optician etc should be arranged outside of school hours. Where this unavoidable, please ensure that students attend before and after to maintain good attendance. Authorisation for medical appointments can be given in the event of an emergency and unavoidable circumstances whereby an appointment card/letter is provided.

Unavoidable Absence

If your child will be absent from school for illness or other unavoidable reason, please inform the school office by 08:40hrs each day of the absence. In the event that we do not know the reason for the absence, we will make contact with you to ensure you and your child are safe and well.

Attending school every day = 100%

• Attending 4 ½ days a week = 4 weeks missed per year = 90% attendance
• Attending 4 days a week = more than half a term missed per year = 80% attendance
• Attending 3 ½ days a week = more than a quarter of the school year missed = 70% attendance

Attendance Policy & Guidance