Attendance and Absence

‘Every Academy Day Counts’

We are committed to enabling all our students to achieve their full potential. To do this it is vital that our students and parents/carers involve themselves fully in a commitment to ensure our students attend the school for the maximum amount of available time. Excellent attendance enables students to achieve and take full advantage of the range of opportunities attendance at this school offers. Irregular attendance places students outside our caring community and undermines the education process and our duty to safeguard them. This situation leads to educational disadvantage and can place our students in a vulnerable position.

We recognise that for the vast majority of our students, good school attendance is a well‐established habit for success. However it is important to clarify parental responsibilities with regard to punctuality and attendance:

• The Academy is closed for 14 weeks a year when you can take holidays and travel abroad. Where there are exceptional circumstances for a pupil to be absent during term time, you can make a written request to the Principal via your child’s Head of College.
• We expect pupils to arrive at the Academy on time. Late arrivals disrupt the education of others. Pupils arriving after the register has closed will be marked in the register as having an unauthorised absence.
• We do not expect pupils to come to school when they are sick, but those with regular sickness absence will be expected to provide us with medical evidence before further absences are authorised.
• Avoid medical and dental appointments during the Academy day.
• If you or your children are having difficulties that impact on attendance, please make an appointment with a member of staff to discuss additional support.

Thank you for working in partnership with us to achieve the highest possible levels of attendance and punctuality at Mascalls.

Post-16 Absence and Attendance

Sickness Absence

If your child is unwell and unable to attend School you must inform Karen Marsh, our Sixth Form Administrator by email (karen.marsh@mascallsacademy.org.uk) or by telephone 01892 839042 by 8.30am on each day that they are absent so that school registers can be updated.  Failure to do this may result in your child having “unauthorised” absences, which may ultimately be dealt with under the school’s disciplinary procedures.  Our Safeguarding Policy also requires that we know where our students are at all times during school hours and therefore it is important that you keep us informed if your child needs to be out of school for any reason.

Medical Appointments

Whilst we understand that in an emergency situation you will need to arrange for your child to see a medical professional at short notice and may not be in a position to inform us in advance of this; in other non-urgent cases we ask that GP, Hospital, Dentist/Orthodontist and other medical appointments are booked for dates and times outside of school hours.

Where this is not possible, we ask firstly that you try to book them at a time when your child does not have a timetabled lesson, and secondly that confirmation of the appointment date and time, either via an appointment card or letter, or by way of a telephone call or email , is provided to Karen Marsh, who will then enter the information on to the schools’ register.  Failure to provide appropriate confirmation of the appointment will again result in the absence being classified as “unauthorised”.

Driving Tests and Lessons

We understand that it is important for your child to undertake their test in daylight hours and therefore at certain times of the year it may have to be carried out during School hours.  However if this is the case then we require sight of the confirmation letter issued by the Test Centre so that the information can be entered on to the register.

We will not authorise absence for driving lessons, which can quite reasonably be arranged outside of school time.

Visits to universities and colleges, funeral attendance and other planned absences

A Sixth Form Absence Request Form 2023-24 should be completed and submitted to the Sixth Form office in advance of the visit so that appropriate authorisation can be given and information entered on to the register.

We also expect students to inform their subject Teachers of any periods of authorised absence so that work can be provided to students that they might miss in the lesson if they are not present on that particular day.