Attendance
Reporting an Absence
You are required to inform the school that your child will be absent before 8:30 a.m. on the first day of absence, and any subsequent days of absence as we have a Duty of Care to know where all our students are during school hours in term time.
Student Absences - Years 7-11:
Notifications of absences for students in Years 7-11 should be reported to Ms Klein, our Attendance Officer, using the school absence line (details below). Please give your child’s name, form and specific reason for absence. We may require a medical certificate to justify frequent or extensive absences.
TELEPHONE: 01702 476026 before 8:30 a.m.
| Year 7 - 11 (reported to Ms Klein, Attendance Officer) | Select Option 2 |
Student Absences - Sixth Form Students:
All Sixth Form absences should be reported using the email address below. There is no option to ring the school to report Sixth Form absences: sixthformabsence@whsg.info
If we are not informed of your child's absence, we will contact you in order to ensure their safety and confirm their reason for being absent.
If we do not receive an explanation your child's absence, or if the explanation is unsatisfactory, we may not authorise the absence and will mark this on your child’s attendance record. This is to ensure that sickness absence is not misused, and to promote attendance levels for all students.
Expectations
WHSG expects students to attend school every day that the school is open and to be punctual.
We recognise that good attendance is essential in order to raise standards of student attainment and to give every child and young person the best education experience possible. There is a strong correlation between good attendance and achievement. Every lesson in school matters and absence can limit a pupil’s progress, and therefore their life chances. If students are not in school, they cannot be educated.
School Attendance And The Law
You have a legal responsibility to ensure your child is in regular school attendance and we expect parents to support the school in all attendance issues. By law; only the school can approve absences, not parents. It is for the school to judge whether the explanation given is a satisfactory justification for the absence.
Advising the school of your child's absence
If your child is unwell, please refer to the NHS guidance to ascertain whether your child should come to school.
Leaving During The School Day
If possible, appointments (including medical, dental, and optician) should be made out of school hours or during the school holidays. Where this cannot be arranged, we ask that the student is out of school for the minimum amount of time possible.
Students who need to leave school during normal school hours for an appointment must sign out at Reception, where they will be expected to show an appointment card or a letter confirming their appointment
Students should also sign in again on return.
Advance notice of medical or dental appointments - Years 7-11 and Sixth Form students:
If you need to notify us of any advance medical, dental or optician appointments, please advise the school using the dedicated email address: attendance@whsg.info All medical appointments, however brief, should be backed up with medical evidence. This can be either a copy of the appointment letter/card or a screen shot of a text reminder from the dentist or hospital. We would be grateful if the subject line of the email address could include the following please:
Years 7-11 students - 'for the attention of Ms Klein' along with your child's year group.
Sixth Form students - 'for the attention of Mrs Gibbinson' along with your child's year group.
Please note that if you contact us via email to advise us of student absence for medical appointments, this does not replace the letter from home that is needed to be shown by students at the point of signing out to leave school.
Term-Time Holiday Applications
There is no entitlement for parents to take their child out of school during term-time; permission for family holidays during term time will not be authorised by the school. Holiday leave taken without formal permission is classified as unauthorised and will lead to a referral being made to the Local Authority.
You may apply to the school for leave of absence if you believe there are exceptional circumstances. Leave of absence may only be granted by the Headteacher and only where an advanced application has been made by the parent with whom the pupil normally resides, and the school considers that there are exceptional circumstances relating to the application.
If the absence is not authorised and the holiday is taken, the case will be referred to the Missing Education and Child Employment Service who may issue a Penalty Notice for £120 (or £60 if paid within 21 days) to each parent for each child taken out of school.
Further Information
Attendance_Policy_September_2023.pdf
https://www.southend.gov.uk/school-attendance
FFT Attendance National Award Spring 22-23 KS4.pdf
FFT Attendance Similar School Award Spring 22-23 KS4.pdf
FFT Attendance National Award August 22-23
Attendance Officer
Mrs Gillian Klein
01702 476 026
