Attendance

1. Home
2. Our School
3. Attendance

Working together to improve school attendance

We are committed to meeting our obligations with regards to school attendance, including those laid out in the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) statutory guidance on working together to improve school attendance, through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:

Setting high expectations for the attendance and punctuality of all pupils

Promoting good attendance and the benefits of good attendance

Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence

Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled

Acting early to address patterns of absence

Building strong relationships with families to make sure pupils have the support in place to attend school

Attend every day

A strong school community is one where all children are present in school, on time, every day. By attending every day, your child will experience a wonderful number of educational opportunities. We do understand that each family's circumstances are unique and you may sometimes be unsure as to whether your child should attend school.

At Nottingham Free School we will actively promote and encourage 100% attendance for all of our pupils. We will give high priority to communicating with parents and pupils the importance of regular and punctual attendance. We recognise that parents have a vital role to play and that there is a need to establish strong home-school links and communications systems that can be utilised whenever there is concern about attendance.

If children do not attend school regularly they may:

• Struggle to keep up with school work. In a busy school day it is difficult for schools to find the extra time to help a child catch up.
• Miss out on the social side of school life. Poor attendance can affect children’s ability to make and keep friendships, a vital part of growing up.

Setting good attendance patterns will also help your child later on. Employers want to recruit people who are reliable. Children who have a poor school attendance record may have less chance of getting a good job.

Nottingham Free School will:

• Work towards ensuring that all pupils feel supported and valued.
• Encourage parents/carers to be actively involved in promoting their child's attendance.
• Regularly inform parents/carers and pupils informing them of their child's attendance and how many days they have missed.
• Inform parents/carers when an absence has not been unauthorised.
• Promote positive staff attitudes to pupils returning following an absence.
• Ensure regular evaluation of our attendance policy and procedures by the head teacher and Governors.
• Consistent and vigorous monitoring and evaluation procedures will be in place.

How do we promote attendance at Nottingham Free School?

Attendance to school is the number one priority for achievement. Therefore, we reward pupils by using the following:

• Wheel of Fortune - students are recognised for their attendance and punctuality weekly in assemblies, monthly, termly and annually. Students are able to win prizes for excellent attendance and making improvements.
• Attendance Challenge Cup – weekly tutor groups are ranked with the tutor group with the lowest attendance for that week to be knocked out. The winning tutor group at the end of the half term earns breakfast for their tutor set.
• Treat Friday – the tutor set within each year group are awarded with a treat each Friday.
• Achievement assemblies – each half term students are recognised for their attendance.
• Students who achieve 100% attendance over 5 years are rewarded with £100.

Punctuality

Being on time is vital. Arriving late at school can be very disruptive for your child, the teacher and the other children in the class.

Expectations for students and parents:

Students should arrive in school between 8.15am and 8.28am. Students are expected to be in their tutor set at 8.30am. Our registers open at 8.30am and close at 9.00am.

Students who arrive 30 minutes after the register has closed (after 9am and 13.45pm) will receive a U code and this will be classed as an anauthorised absence for the morning or afternoon.

Our approach to students who are late (are not in tutor set at 8.30am):

Any pupil who arrives after 8.30am is considered late and will be coded as L. Any student arriving after 9.00am will be coded with a U code.

Therefore, to avoid these steps we have a tiered response to pupils who arrive late to school (beyond 8.30am):

First late = email home from the attendance officer and students receive an R20 detention the same day.

Second late = email home from the attendance officer, call home their tutor to discuss if there are concerns + students receive an R40 detention the same day.

Third late = email home from the attendance officer, call home by their tutor to discuss what supportive measures can be put into place + students receive an R40 detention the same day.

Fourth late = email home from the attendance officer, meeting with parents, Head of Year, attendance officer and pupils to receive an R40 detention for any further lates.

It is important to note, that parents are responsible for communicating any concerns with the school so that we are able to put in place the right support for children. Please contact their Head of Year or Natalie Mills if you seek further support

Why would we unauthorise an absence?

There may be times when your child has to miss school because they are ill. This is to be expected and for this you should follow the school procedure for notifying illness. However, in order to provide further guidance for parents/carers as to what would be considered an unauthorised absence we have provided the following guidance:

Please click on the link provided:

Children may also have to attend a medical or dental appointment in school time. All appointments are requested to be made outside of the school day wherever possible but if an appointment has to be made during the school day, we expect the student to be in before and/or after the appointment, depending on the time. If a student is absent for the full day we will mark them as unauthorised for either the AM or PM roll call.

Any absences must be requested as far in advance as possible and can only be authorised by the school.

Holidays

All parents must complete a holiday form, however Nottingham Free School does not authorise holidays, in line with Government's policies - https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence

Holidays during term time are marked as G. Exceptional circumstances would be authorised at the discretion of the Head of School (i.e. service personnel on leave after returning from overseas duties) however, even then we would take into consideration what year the student is in and whether any exams or assessments are taking place at the requested time of absence.

Parents/Carers need to be aware that we will request a ‘Penalty Notice’ for any requested holiday. If found that a student was removed for the purpose of a holiday without permission/notification from parents/carers, a ‘Penalty Notice’ will also be requested, even after the pupil has returned from the holiday.

What happens if your child does not attend school regularly?

As a school we are responsible by law for reporting poor attendance to the Local Authority Education Welfare Department. As a parent, you are committing an offence if you fail to make sure that your child attends school regularly, even if they are missing school without your knowledge, and may be issued with a penalty notice or taken to court.

Under the new National Framework for penatly notices, when a student reaches the threshold of 10 sessions of unauthorised absences in a rolling period of 10 school weeks, all schools must now consider issuing a penalty notice. Please see attendance policy for further information on this.

What might the impact of poor attendance be on your child?

Research has shown that children who are not in school are the most vulnerable and are easily drawn into crime. Those children who play truant are more likely to offend than those that do not. The following graph shows the link between percentage attendance and GCSE grades 9- 4. The higher the attendance percentage the higher the number of GCSEs achieved.

What can you do to help?

• If you suspect that your child may be missing school or is unhappy at school, you should contact the school as soon as possible so that you can work with them to resolve any difficulties.
• Make sure your child understands that you do not approve of them missing school, but be on the alert for any particular reasons for non-attendance, such as problems with school work and discuss these with the school.
• If your child is ill or absent for any other reason, contact the school on every day of absence by 8.15 am on 0115 8964949.
• If your child is attending a medical appointment during the school day, you can notify the school by emailing contact@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk or writing a note in your child’s planner.
• Make sure that your child arrives at school on time.
• Take an interest in your child’s education.
• Ask them about their day and praise and encourage their achievements at school.

Please click the links for our attendance guidance letters to Year 7 and Year 8-13 parents and carers:

• Year 7 Parent Letter - NFS Approach to Attendance
• Year 8-13 Parent Letter - NFS Approach to Attendance

Leave of absence

If parents need to request a leave of absence for their child during the school term please download and complete the form below.

• Leave of Absence form

Who to contact if you have any concerns or queries:

• Susan Seymour and Natalie Mills - Attendance Officers (sseymour@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk and nmills@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• Kay Gray - Deputy Headteacher (kgray@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• Natasha Harmer-Weston - Head of Year 7 (nharmer-weston@@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• Meika Leivars - Head of Year 8 (mleivars@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• Sarah Cockayne - Head of Year 9 (scockayne@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• Alex Wells- Head of Year 10 (awells@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)
• David Baines - Head of Year 11 (dbaines@nottinghamfreeschool.co.uk)