Attendance Policy
Attendance Documents
Attendance and Punctuality at Madeley School
At Madeley School, we want all students to strive for 100% attendance to give them the best opportunity for future success.
Students with 96% and above have good levels of attendance and have been shown, both nationally and at Madeley School, to have better outcomes in their GCSEs.
Over a period of five school years, a student with 90% attendance will have missed half of a whole year of schooling. Similarly, students with poor punctuality miss valuable lesson time and, if it happens regularly, progress will be jeopardised.
What the data shows us at Madeley about the impact of attendance on a student’s GCSE results
- Pupils with no absence are over twice as likely to achieve 5 or more GCSEs at grades 5-9 including English and Mathematics.
- The students with the highest levels of attendance are almost 5 times more likely to achieve 5 GCSEs at grades 5-9 including English and Mathematics.
- Students with a rate of attendance lower than 95%, have lower than 50% chance of gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade 5-9 including Maths and English. Only 35% of pupils whose attendance is lower than 90% gain 5 or more GCSEs including England and Maths.
- Students with 100% attendance have almost 75% chance of gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades 5-9 including English and Maths.
Punctuality
Being late to school can also have a significant impact on your child's attendance and learning. All students are expected to be in school by 8.35am as the doors close automatically at this time and learning begins. Any student arriving after this will have to enter school by the student entrance and will sign in via student services, any student arriving late will receive a detention.
The law on school attendance and right to a full-time education
The law entitles every child of compulsory school age to an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, aptitude, and any special educational need they may have. It is the legal responsibility of every parent to make sure their child receives that education either by attendance at a school or by education otherwise than at a school.
Where parents decide to have their child registered at school, they have an additional legal duty to ensure their child attends that school regularly. This means their child must attend every day that the school is open, except in a small number of allowable circumstances such as being too ill to attend or being given permission for an absence in advance from the school.
All schools have a continuing responsibility to proactively manage and improve attendance across their school community. Attendance is the essential foundation to positive outcomes for all pupils including their safeguarding and welfare and should therefore be seen as everyone’s responsibility in school. That starts with the senior attendance champion on the school’s leadership team but includes all school staff.
Working together to improve school attendance
Statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies, independent schools and local authorities
Published: 29 February 2024
Applies from: 19 August 2024
Working together to improve attendance
Successfully treating the root causes of absence and removing barriers to attendance, at home, in school or more broadly requires schools and local partners to work collaboratively in partnership with, not against families. All partners should work together to:
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Supporting students with attendance
If your child is absent
Phone the Attendance Officer before 8.30am or (if unavailable) leave a message on the answer phone with:
- child’s name, year group, form
- name of person making the call,
- date of absence
- a detailed reason for absence.
This must be done on the first day of absence and EVERY subsequent day.
The Attendance Officer at school can be contacted on 01782 987800.
Planned absence and leave of absence
Parents and carers are expected to make medical or dental appointments outside of school hours wherever possible. Attending a medical or dental appointment will only be counted as authorised if the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment and provides evidence of the appointment. Parents and carers will be responsible for ensuring their child misses only the amount of time necessary to attend the appointment.
The school will only grant a pupil a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances and will consider requests on an individual basis. The school will expect parents to contact the headteacher in writing.
If term-time leave is not granted, taking a pupil out of school will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and may result in sanctions, such as a penalty notice. The school cannot grant leave of absence retrospectively; therefore, any absences that were not approved by the school in advance will be marked as unauthorised.
What does authorised and unauthorised absence mean?
As a school we must follow national legal guidelines which means that holiday requests during term-time cannot be authorised. Because of this, absences or persistent lateness which are not agreed with us, can incur a penalty notice. These penalties are through the local council and we have no control over how they are given.
We cannot guarantee that we will authorise a student’s leave of absence during term time, as this is only done in exceptional circumstances. If you don’t get permission from our Principal, Mr Nixon, the absence is classed as ‘unauthorised’ and this includes lateness. If you want to see if an absence can be authorised, you must contact school in advance and get permission from Mr Nixon.
Contact the Attendance Team:
Attendance Officer
Mrs H Bagnall: hazel.bagnall@madeley.set.org
Attendance Champion
Mrs S Halstead: sara.halstead@madeley.set.org
Heads of Year:
• Head of Year 7: hayley.drohan@madeley.set.org
• Head of Year 8: phil.dale@madeley.set.org
• Head of Year 9: steve.walker@madeley.set.org
• Head of Year 10: elliott.flemming@madeley.set.org
• Head of Year 11: sara.halstead@madeley.set.org
• Pastoral support: jeanette.carter@madeley.set.org