At Holley Park Academy, we fully believe that good attendance is central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential. Pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both Primary and Secondary school. For these reasons, the Trust will proactively work in partnership with all parents/carers to promote and secure good attendance and overcome any barriers through strong partnership working.

Informing school of an absence

If your child is absent from school, we ask that you contact school by 9.30am confirming child's name, class, and reason for absence.  We operate a first day response for all pupil absences and we will contact parents/carers if we have not been informed as to why a pupil is absent.

Planned absence

Attending a medical or dental appointment will be counted as authorised as long as the pupil’s parent/carer notifies the school in advance of the appointment.
We ask parents/carers to notify school in advance of the appointment by telephone or informing the main school office in person. Parents/carers must bring copies of appointment cards where possible.
However, we do encourage parents/carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary.

Authorised and unauthorised absence

The Headteacher will only grant a leave of absence to a pupil during term time if they consider there to be ‘exceptional circumstances’. A leave of absence is granted at the Headteacher’s discretion, including the length of time the pupil is authorised to be absent for.

Northern Lights Learning Trust define ‘exceptional circumstances’ as ‘unusual’ or ‘rare’ and each request will be considered individually, taking in to account the specific facts, circumstances and context behind the request.

Exceptional Circumstances could include:

• Service personnel returning from a tour of duty abroad where it is evidenced the individual will not
  be in receipt of any leave in the near future that coincides with school holidays.

• Where an absence from school is recommended by a health professional as part of a parent or
  child’s rehabilitation from a medical or emotional issue

• When a family needs to spend time together to support each other during a terminal illness or death of a family member (compassionate grounds).

 

Circumstances that are NOT be considered exceptional include:

• Parents’ employment restrictions

• Visiting family and friends who have different school holidays

• Availability of cheap holidays and cheap travel arrangements

• Celebrations of birthdays etc.

A leave of absence request form is available from the school office. Any leave of absence requests should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and, where possible, at least 2 weeks before the absence.

PLEASE NOTE: The Headteacher may require evidence to support any request for leave.

The absence request will then be processed and a decision will be made. Any absence, which has not been agreed in advance by the Headteacher, is marked as unauthorised absence.

Monitoring

Attendance is categorised below:

 

Each half term, we will communicate attendance to parents/ carers, letting them know which category their child falls into.

The Headteacher will monitor the attendance of children each week and will identify and monitor the attendance of any child who is a persistent or severe persistent absentee. A proactive approach will also be taken each Friday to identify any children who may be at risk of entering the next stage of attendance, and appropriate contact with parents will be made.

Please use the following link to read Sunderland Local Authority's Code of Conduct around penalty notices: Penalty notices - Sunderland City Council 

 

Our Attendance Champion is Mr Lee Garrett.