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Attendance

Why is it important to attend school

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Being on time and in school every day ensures they are accessing the support and high quality lessons we provide at GWA. 95% attendance may sound high, but this means that in a year a child has missed approximately 60 lessons, which they will struggle to make up. Research shows there is a clear link between high attendance and high achievement, and that every single day missed has an impact on future earnings. If your child is a little under the weather, please send them in. We can always call you later in the day to collect them or give them medication you have supplied

How do I report a student’s absence?

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Ensuring your child has attendance above 97% is the best way you can support your child in their academic attainment. Before calling in please encourage them to get up and have something to eat, this often helps them to feel well enough to come in.  

 

If they are unwell enough to get up and come to school, please do the following:  

All student absences MUST be reported each day by no later than 8:30am.  

You can either:  email  attendance@gwacademy.co.uk or call 01793 209 700 and then  option 1 to report an absence. Please leave the child’s name, tutor group and reason for illness.

What happens if your child is late to school?

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Our pupils must arrive by 8:25am on each school day, for morning roll call. Gates close at 8.28am, this allows students enough time to get to tutor time for registration. Students arriving after 8:30am will be issued with a L2 break detention. Our morning registers close at 8:50am. Any child who arrives after registration closes is marked as U (unauthorised absence) in the register for the morning session, this counts as a half day absence on your child's record. 

What happens if you know your child will be absent during term time?

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Please be aware that all requests for absence during term time are overseen by the Principal or Vice Principal. National guidance requires us to reject most requests as student attendance is a national focus and priority. 

Current legislation does not allow any absence due to holiday during term time unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances, when it will be at the discretion of the Principal or Vice Principal. Any parent wishing to request a leave of absence in extenuating circumstances will need to apply through this Student absence form

 

Please email any questions to attendance@gwacademy.co.uk.  

Requesting a leave of absence does not mean that the absence will be authorised. Our default is that absence requests will be unauthorised and requests for absence rejected unless there are exceptional circumstances. Should you still wish to request an absence parents / carers should submit the Absence request forms as soon as leave is anticipated; and wherever possible, at least four weeks before the absence.

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​If a parent/guardian takes a student out of school on holiday during term time and that absence is unauthorised, the school will request a Penalty Notice be issued by the local authority. 

What the attendance percentages mean?

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We would all feel pleased with ourselves if we scored 90% in a test. However, 90% attendance means your child misses 114 lessons each year. Over the course of your child’s five years at GWA, that adds up to 570 lessons, that’s a significant amount of learning missed and research shows that this significantly impacts academic attainment.  

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Attendance during one school year
Number of days missed
Number of lessons missed
95%
9 days
54 lessons
90%
19 days
114 lessons
85%
28 days
168 lessons
80%
37 days
222 lessons
75%
47 days
282 lessons
70%
56 days
336 lessons
65%
65 days
390 lessons

Links between good attendance and academic attainment​​​

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To give your child, the best chance in life, they need to achieve a good set of GCSE results. The table below shows the impact of poor attendance on likely GCSE outcomes, the lower your child’s attendance, the less chance they have of passing 5 GCSEs. 

At a minimum, your child will need to achieve 5 GCSEs Grade 9-4 to progress to Post 16 otherwise they may end up having to re-take some qualifications, in particular English and Maths GCSE

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Number of days missed per year
Percentage of students who achieve 5 GCSEs Grade 9-4
0 days missed
78%
10 days missed
63%
20 days missed
52%
30 days missed
40%
40 days missed
30%

How do we support students and families to ensure great attendance?​​​

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Our Attendance Officer monitors on a daily basis: absence calls, late students, register completion and works with students and families where attendance is falling. She also authorises appointments and where necessary will undertake the legal aspects of unauthorised attendance as set out here  

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Tutors meet their tutor groups each morning and afternoon and run regular attendance clinics with students whose attendance is lower than expected. The aim is to help work out what the barriers are and what support is needed. During attendance clinics, the tutor and the student will create an action plan to improve attendance. Should their attendance continue to fall the pastoral team and the attendance lead will have further discussions and where necessary parents will be invited in to discuss any further support they require.  

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We also work with Swindon Borough Council where attendance remains a significant concern, to ensure that we get additional professional support to improve attendance where necessary. 

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How can you help your child improve their attendance?​​​

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Ilness - Does your child often say they feel unwell first thing in the morning?

Students should only be missing school if they are really unwell and would not be able to get out of bed at any point during the day. For colds, headaches, sore throats, tummy ache/period pains etc students should get up and dressed in their uniform, have breakfast and try to come to school. When we are ill, we often feel at our worst in the morning. It is always much better to go into school and see how you go. We cannot authorise a whole day for these kinds of absences. 

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We can administer pain relief should your child require it. Medicines should be in their original box and Medical Form filled out and handed to reception. 

Download medical form - Parental agreement to administer Medication form 

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Tiredness - Is your child getting enough good quality sleep? 

Ask your child: 

How many hours of sleep do you get? Is it good quality sleep? 

Do you feel rested, restored, and energised when you wake up in the morning? 

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The Sleep Foundation - This is a useful website to read through together if your child isn’t getting enough sleep, especially towards the bottom of the page ‘how to improve your sleep quality’ - at home you could agree to put in place 3 of these actions as a family to support better sleep. 

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Do you think your child is avoiding school for some reason? 

Below are some questions you can ask your child to try and work out what the problem might be: 

  • Are there any subjects where you feel behind? 

  • Are there any lessons that you really don’t look forward to? Why is this? How can I help? 

  • Which teachers do you have good relationships with? 

  • How do you find breaktime/ lunchtime? (food/ friends/ activity etc) 

  • Are there any friendship issues/ concerns about interactions with other students in your classes? 

  • If you could change one thing about your time in school that would make you more likely to go to school every day, what would it be?

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You can contact the school in the following ways to tell us about any concerns you have/ your child has, and we will work with you to try and resolve them. 

Email us  on attendance@gwacademy.co.uk or email your child’s House on the below; 

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