Attendance

Outstanding attendance at Brooke Weston Academy is an important focus and part of our day-to-day approach.

Students are given the knowledge to understand correlations between attendance and achievement; this is done through a range of Academy forums and strategies. Our ethos towards attendance is reinforced by a thorough system, with an emphasis on home-school communication. All students are expected to work towards a minimum target of over 96.5% for each academic year.

Attendance Matters:

Brooke Weston Academy has high expectations of student attendance. 

We believe encouraging school attendance is one of the most powerful ways you can prepare your child for success, both in school and in life. 

Making school attendance and punctuality a priority helps your child to maximise their potential, develop important socials skills and avoid dangerous behaviour. Attendance target 97%. 

Student attendance is measured as a percentage. This refers to the proportion of days that a student attends out of the 190 possible school days per year. The poster below shows the number days and lessons that a Student will have missed were their attendance to fall below 100%.

At Brooke Weston Academy, our expectation is that students attendance does not fall below 97%. Students whose attendance remains between 97% and 100% are in the best position to achieve the top grades in their GCSEs and A-Levels. Students whose attendance drops below 94% will have missed 2 weeks of school. This has a significant impact on GCSE results: 

• Students 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 50% chance of gaining 5 or more GCSEs at grade 5-9 including Maths and English. Only 35% of Students 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. 

If your child is having difficulties attending school, please contact your child’s form tutor or Student Care Team as soon as possible, as most issues can be dealt with very quickly. 

We wish to work in partnership with parents/carers and so are seeking your full support in ensuring that your child attends school every day and on time. We are always pleased to work together to resolve any difficulties, and we are committed to improving attendance levels.

Pupils are expected to arrive at school to be in class ready to learn from 8:35am, when morning registers are then taken.

Pupils arriving after 8:35am will be marked as late. If a pupil arrives at 9:00am or later, after the close of all registers, the sign-in code will constitute as an absence and negatively impact a pupil’s attendance record.

Arriving at school late is disruptive to a pupil’s daily routine and means that they lose a considerable amount of valuable learning time.

Parents and carers are expected to communicate with school promptly to inform if their child is going to be absent due to illness or other reasons and maintain daily contact during the period of absence.

Absences must be reported by:

1. Calling 01536 396366 (option 2)
2. Via the Edulink app

Absences from school can have a direct impact upon a child’s academic and social development due to lost learning time. We recognise that in our busy lives, it can become easy to lose track of the number of days that a child is absent over the school year, however daily attendance is vital to ensure that all children have the best opportunities to flourish and succeed.

Home visits are conducted as a standard protocol to families to follow-up on pupil absences and provide support to pupils and parents/carers where appropriate. Please note that visits may be pre-arranged or could be unannounced, dependent upon the circumstances.

The academy has a duty to safeguard the welfare of all students. Any concerns about a child’s attendance will be investigated promptly to ensure support for their wellbeing.

If there are unexplained/prolonged periods of absence or an identified safeguarding concern, this may require school to contact external agencies.

We request that where possible, all appointments (including dental, medical, visa, optical, etc.) are made outside of school hours.

Should this not be possible, we kindly ask that you provide evidence of the appointment in order for the absence to be authorised.

This also includes sports visits/competitions taking place during school time.

This request should be sent through directly via Edulink.

Parents and carers must request any planned leave of absence for exceptional circumstances in writing prior to the intended absence of their child. Requests will be reviewed, and a decision made as to whether the absence will be authorised or unauthorised.

Leave during term time forms can be collected from Reception, or by clicking below. Please ensure that these are completed as far in advance as possible to the planned leave. If you are completing this online, please email the completed form to enquiries@brookeweston.org, if you are handing the form into school, please ensure this is handed in to Reception. Thank you.

Absence Request Form
In line with Department for Education (2024) regulations, holidays or absences for leisure and recreation would not constitute as exceptional circumstances.

As per the National Framework for Penalty Notices (2024), parents and carers may be issued with a fixed penalty notice or legal sanction if a pupil is absent due to unauthorised leave during term time.

If a student feels unwell, whilst they are attending the Academy site, they must report to a member staff during lesson time or by approaching their Form Tutor or a member od Student Support directly during break or lunch. 

When this occurs a student’s condition and circumstances will then be checked, with the member of staff involved then considering the situation and liaising with parents or carers if appropriate. If it is agreed that the student will be collected to go home, this will be clarified with a named adult from our student contact details list. 

Students must then be collected by an adult, who is again named on the students contact list. If this is not possible, the Academy will need written confirmation and permission stating the adult who will be acting as the person responsible for supervision and collection. 

Please note that students should not be contacting parents or carers directly during school hours via mobile phones, we need to manage safeguarding protocols and ensure that we control records of students arriving on and off site.

The Government’s priority is to ensure that every child attends school regularly and where attendance is deemed to be unsatisfactory, that it is addressed promptly. There is clear evidence that any absence can and will have an impact on attainment. It is therefore important that schools maintain good attendance levels and that parents support this by ensuring their children attend school regularly.

The Brooke Weston Trust Academies and the Local Authority have been working together to issue warnings and Penalty Notices under Section 444(A) of the Education Act 1996 (amended regulations 2013).

A Penalty Notice is a fine up to £120. It is £60, if paid within the first 21 days but then £120 past the 21st day / within the 28 days. If the penalty is not paid in full by the end of the 28 day period, the Local Authority will instigate Court Proceedings and the outcome of a prosecution could be up to £1,000 per parent/adult This is an alternative to the prosecution of parents/carers/guardians for failing to ensure the regular attendance of a compulsory school age (age 5-16 years) student where they are registered or at a place where alternative provision is provided.

Whilst parents/carers/guardians can provide explanations for absences, it is at the Academy’s discretion as to whether this absence will be authorised or unauthorised. The change in legislation has meant the removal of holiday entitlement and Principals will now not authorise any holiday requests in term time, unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’. A family holiday taken in term time will result in a warning and Penalty Notice being issued.

Other criteria for Penalty Notices include a student having a high number of unauthorised absences within an academic year and where an excluded student is found in a public place during school hours without a justifiable explanation.

The current Persistent Absence threshold is 10%. This means that students who have cumulative absence as shown below will fall into the Persistent Absence banding –

• Term 1 = 4 days
• Term 2 = 8 days
• Term 3 = 12 days
• Term 4 = 16 days
• Term 5 = 20 days.

Further advice and guidance on this matter can be located through the Department of Education website entitled “Advice on school attendance”.

Parents and carers are invited to contact the academy if they wish to discuss their child’s attendance further or seek additional support

Our Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) ensures comprehensive attendance intervention for all pupils. The system incorporates staff, children, parents and carers, and external agencies. This comprises of three Tiers:

• Tier 1 provides a universal offering to all pupils.
• Tier 2 involves early internal support and intervention.
• Tier 3 is higher levels of support for children, young people and families who require access to external agency support.

The process is completely aligned with Department for Education guidelines. Further information can be found by following this link. 

Our approach promotes recognition of personal and collective achievements, fostering positive environments and developing intrinsic motivation. Recognition may be in the form of verbal conversations; celebrations; postcards; or text message communication.

Through our rich curriculum offer, we strive to instill values within our pupils which support them to be come successful citizens of the future and promote that school attendance is a key component to this success.