UVA Attendance Guidance – All Parents

Attendance and Safeguarding at UVA

Why We Do What We Do

We would like to extend a big thank you to all our Uphill Village community for supporting your children to attend school and engage so well with their learning. We know this reflects the value our families place on children learning in school every day.

At UVA, we want and expect our pupils to attend school every day, unless they are really not well enough to. We believe that children who attend school regularly are more likely to feel settled in school, maintain friendships, keep up with their learning and gain the greatest life-long benefit from their education. Attending school on time every day also helps to form good habits which can stay with them throughout their educational journey and on into the workplace.

Arriving at school on time                   

At 8.35am children are allowed into school. Arrival after 8:45am will be marked as late (L). Arrival after 9:15am will be marked as U (late after registers close). This impacts your child’s overall attendance record.

Illness

Minor ailments need not be a reason for staying at home e.g. tummy/head ache. If your child feels better as the day progresses, they can then attend for the rest of the school day. If your child attends school when feeling slightly under the weather, but feels worse during the school day, we will contact you to let you know if we think they need to go home. If you aren’t sure whether to send your child to school, please contact us and we will be happy to support and advise where appropriate.

If your child is too ill to attend school, you must notify the academy before 8:30am on the first day of absence. If your child is ill for more than one day, you will need to let us know on each and every morning of the absence, unless otherwise agreed. To report an absence, please telephone the absence line on 01934 626769.

Unexplained Absences

The Academy will follow up any pupil absences where the parent/carer has not contacted us to explain why, or where we are unclear about the actual reason for absence. In the first instance we will attempt to make contact by email or text; this will be followed up by a phone call and then a home visit from a member of the attendance team if no timely response is received.

Schools have a specific duty to protect children. Section 175 of The Education Act 2002 compels schools to;

• Safeguard children and,
• Promote their well-being.

Therefore, if children are not attending school, we must do something about this and take the appropriate steps to support the child and family.

This means we will always do a home visit to find out where a child is. In some cases, if we are concerned, we may notify the police if contact cannot be made. Unexplained absences will be recorded as unauthorised.

Medical/Dental Appointments

Please try to avoid medical and dental appointments in school time. If this is unavoidable, arrange appointments so that the minimum school time is lost. Unless it is an emergency appointment, parents/carers are expected to let the academy know about the appointment in advance. You should also provide evidence of the appointment, such as an appointment letter or card. Your child should still attend school for as much of the school day as possible.

Supporting families

When a pupil is absent, we will always follow our duty of care and do our best to support them and their family in a range of ways:

• Daily texts, emails &/or phone calls &/or home visits from a member of the attendance team to check on well-being and to see if any support is needed.
• Attendance meetings with members of the attendance team or Principal to discuss ways to support families and improve attendance.
• Follow up letters or documents to help map out support and plans to improve your child’s attendance.
• Referral to appropriate outside agencies if required e.g. Early help referrals, Education Welfare Officer referrals etc.

Responding to our Team & Enquiries

• Please do not be offended if we ring for clarity on your child’s absence – it is to ensure we can understand and support your child to be in school for 100% of the time.
• We will always try to support our families to ensure children attend school regularly, please be mindful that our staff are working in roles that may at times mean they have to have difficult conversations, although these are hard it isn’t acceptable to respond with abusive language, sarcasm, or rudeness. Please be mindful.