<
Skip to content ↓

We recognise that improving attendance is a school leadership matter, and we have an SLT Attendance Champion with overall accountability for improving attendance in school and an Attendance Manager who oversees the day-to-day running of Attendance and processes.

Responsibilities include offering a sharp vision for attendance improvement, communicated through a straightforward policy and strategy. Working alongside the attendance team are the wider school staff, as attendance is everybody’s priority, who are involved in evaluating and monitoring expectations, using data for analysis, and communicating messages to students, parents, and external agencies.

School Expectations/Targets

The Abbey School expects every student to have at least 96% attendance.

We want our students to achieve their full potential and to progress into their chosen career. Barriers such as poor attendance will hinder, delay or stop their progress.

The parents of a student whose attendance has fallen below 96% will automatically be sent a standard letter. This will state their attendance and any further action that may be taken if it does not improve. Parents informing us of absences due to illness does not automatically guarantee it will be authorised. This will be determined by the school. This decision will be based on current attendance levels and whether medical evidence has been provided. Continued unauthorised absence may result in a referral to our KPAS Attendance Officer for KCC where legal intervention may be followed.

Implementation of Attendance at The Abbey School

Our ambition is to have every child in school every day. To facilitate this, we have a robust and effective attendance strategy in place.

Attendance is everybody’s responsibility and senior leadership teams strive to develop a culture where all parties are clear on their role and therefore can be held to account. To enable all parties to fulfil their role, clear systems and procedures are implemented which are understood by all and applied consistently.

Staff Roles and Responsibilities

Our approach has a strong focus on a support-first approach with preventative measures and swift intervention. This allows leaders to plan for contextual challenges, alongside educating parents/carers and students on the impact of absence from school, both academically and socially. We aim to work together with parents and external agencies to understand barriers and work together to remove them.

Effective Strategies and Systems

Attendance staff plan an annual programme for attendance and punctuality events over the year. This includes:

  • Events such as assemblies, parent meetings, targeted interventions, academic consultation evenings
  • Other events are planned according to contextual need and arising issues across the academic year, such as Safeguarding events, coffee mornings, transition contact etc.
  • Pre-empting poor attendance patterns – e.g. monitor the first two weeks of term, tackle last week and first week holiday applications and then plan incentives to attend school, check local factors that may affect attendance.

Weekly Reporting

All students and all groups, including vulnerable children, key headline data is reported to SLT and selected information shared with Heads of Year and form tutors.

Coming Into School

Key staff are ready to welcome the students into school and into the building.

  • Greeting at the crossing into school
  • All class teachers create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all
  • Hold catch-up conversations for absent/late students so they are aware of what they have missed
  • Regularly interact with students throughout the day, take an interest in them as individuals
  • Late arrivals are met by key members of staff and conversations are held.

For Students

We will share expectations termly, and revisit where appropriate.

  • Termly attendance assemblies set expectations and celebrate achievements
  • Morning line-up ‘shout outs’ for attendance achievements
  • Posters to share what is available for explicit support which are around the school site

For Parents

We will develop effective relationships to educate and support

  • Standard letters, social media, website, school apps, face-to-face meetings
  • Parents of all new starters will have meetings to share our commitment to attendance
  • Attendance manager to attend parents evenings
  • Attendance is a key focus at all transition events.
  • Build good relationships between home and school.

Prevention of Poor Attendance Through Whole School Attendance Approach

We will use attendance data rigorously to identify patterns of poor attendance, lateness and term-time holidays.

  • Early identification systems are in place, so all parties can work together to resolve absence before it becomes entrenched
  • Early Intervention is put in place to reduce absence before it becomes a problem
  • Early Engagement with parents, carers and students to address absence concerns
Severely and Persistent Absent Students

‘Education Support Plan’ meetings to identify barriers.

Attendance Manager and Head of Year will agree actions or interventions, clearly explaining the consequences of persistent absence and the potential need for legal intervention in the future.  This will then be monitored over an agreed time, and adjusted where necessary to give every chance of success.

Punctuality

Your child should be in school by 8.45am every day as lessons start promptly at 8.50am. Any student arriving at school after 8.50am will be deemed late, and a detention will be given at break time. If a student arrives after registration at 9:20am, when the register closes, they will receive a ‘U’-unauthorised late mark, which may result in a Penalty Notice being issued.

Reporting Absences

Years 7 to 11 - to report your child as unwell, please call the Attendance Office on 01795 542477 or email attendance@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk on each day that your child is not well enough to attend.

For 6th Form Absence:
Call: 01795 532633 ext. 2066
Email: sixthformattendance@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk

We appreciate and encourage parents making daily contact to inform us of absences. In, certain medical cases, some continued absences will be authorised. We do not expect letters from GP’s, but any medication packaging or an appointment card from the Doctor may be enough. If we have requested medical evidence from you, and it is not provided, the absence will not be authorised.

Medical Appointments

We expect parents/carers to book all routine medical appointments outside of the school day. We do, however, understand that some appointments are unavoidable.

Should your child need to attend any medical appointments within the school day, please send a copy of appointment letters to the Attendance Office via email (attendance@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk), this will enable us to authorise these absences. Parents should try, wherever possible, to arrange Doctor or Dentist appointments outside of the school day.

Term-time Leave

It is a parent’s legal responsibility to ensure their child regularly attends school. There are 190 school days a year, which leaves 175 days for:

  • Family holidays
  • Shopping trips
  • Dentist appointments
  • Household jobs
  • Seeing family & friends

Term-time leave will not be authorised at any time. From 19th August 2024, the government has introduced changes around term-time leave of absence as below.

Requesting Support for You and Your Child

Should you need support with your child’s attendance at school, there are multiple staff members for you to contact for this.

Miss Thomson - Attendance Manager (lthomson@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk

Your child’s Head of Year:

Cookie Policy