Attendance

For every child to make the most of their time at school and achieve their potential as young adults, a high level of attendance is essential. At The Park, our mission is to help every learner show ambition, feel nurtured, and flourish in all aspects of their education and personal development.

We are committed to providing an academic education of the highest quality alongside exceptional pastoral care, ensuring we meet the diverse range of student needs in our school. By embedding our values of partnership, ambition, resilience, and kindness, we create a community where every student feels supported, valued, and encouraged to develop into the best version of themselves.

Our educational offer works most effectively when students are present in school, accessing lessons and the wide range of learning opportunities we provide. We believe all our students are entitled to the full breadth of specialist education available at The Park. Parents and carers play a vital role in this partnership, ensuring that their child makes the most of this right by attending school every day.

Teachers and parents share responsibility for promoting excellent attendance and punctuality. Together, we strive for the ambitious goal of 100% attendance for all children. Every opportunity will be taken to remind students and families of the importance of regular attendance and punctuality, as these are key to both academic success and future employability.

The habits that children develop around attendance mirror the expectations they will encounter in the world of work. Resilience, positive life habits, confidence with peers and staff, and future aspirations all grow from consistent attendance.

 

Good attendance matters because:

• There is a clear link between reduced academic achievement and absence below 95%

• Regular attenders make stronger progress socially and academically

• Routines, friendships, and schoolwork become easier to manage

• Learning becomes more enjoyable and fulfilling

• Attendance supports better mental health and wellbeing

• Regular attenders transfer more successfully between school, higher education, employment, or training

 

By working in partnership, and showing ambition, resilience, and kindness, we ensure that all students are well prepared to flourish in their future lives.

Always make your child’s education the priority

• Children are expected in school 190 days each year. Please prioritise this education time and use the 175 non-school days for other activities.
   
• Doctor, dentist or optician appointments should not be made during school time unless they are urgent and essential - make routine appointments after school or during holidays
   
• If you do need to make an urgent appointment in school time try to ensure that your child misses as little of school as possible, and ensure they attend school before and/or after the appointment
   
• We know that travel companies don’t make it easy for families, but never book a holiday during term time (it won't be authorised, your child will fall behind and you may be fined)
   
• Please don’t allow your child to stay off school to make things easier for yourself, this is against the law
   
• Monday and Friday lessons are equally important please do not allow your child to miss school to go away for a long weekend

Help your child feel positive about attending school

• Talk to your child about their day, every day, and focus on the good parts to encourage a positive mindset. 
   
• Speak positively about the school in front of your child. Parents and carers have the most influence over their child's perception of the world and have a big impact on whether a child wants to attend school or not.
   
• School work is meant to be hard but not too hard. Help with any homework if you can and find out if your child feels their school work is right for them. Finding work too hard or too easy can lead to a reduced motivation to attend.
   
• Check your child’s attendance on Arbor, you might not realise how much school they have missed, you can also praise your child's attendance improvements and resilience. 
   
• Work with us to solve problems. Your child will experience problems in school at some point and you may not agree with everything we do. Please speak to us to find out the full story and our point of view before voicing opinions with your child. Your actions when problems occur, strongly influence their feelings towards school and willingness to attend. 
   
• Encourage your child to stay after school to attend home learning clubs, booster sessions and extra-curricular activities whenever they are offered
   
• If your child forgets their school equipment, lunch or is not in the correct uniform, it will cause problems for them at school. Please help your child become organised at home and help them prepare their school bag the night before. 
   
• Remember we all want your child to be happy in school and learn. Please support us by presenting a united front. It is essential your child sees that we work together for their benefit.

If your child’s attendance drops below 90% at any point during the academic year they will be classed as persistently absent (PA) in line with DfE expectations.

Please promote excellent attendance with your child to ensure that they make the most of every minute of every lesson of every day.

Number of days off school resulting in Persistent Absence

Half term 1

3 ½ days off school from September until October half-term holiday will make your child a PA student.

Half-term 1&2

7 days off school from September until the Christmas holiday will make your child a PA student.

Half term 1, 2 & 3

10 days of absence from September until February half-term will make your child a PA student.

Half term 1, 2, 3 & 4

12 ½ days of absence from September until the Easter holidays will make your child a PA student.

Half-term 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

15 ½ days of absence from September until May half-term will make your child a PA student.

Full Academic Year

19 days of absence for the full academic year (September to end of summer term in July) will make your child a PA student.

Our aim is to support families to improve the attendance of students. We therefore adopt a proactive approach making regular contact to ensure issues are dealt with before they escalate where possible. We work in partnership with WPA Education Welfare Services (WPA) who support the work we do in school in promoting good attendance and supporting students and families. 

Pre-emptive calling: Year Leader and Tutors will identify key students who have been persistently late or absent and would benefit from proactive support calls

Absence day one: Office phone call 

Absence day two: Tutor Team phone call

Absence day four: Year Team Lead phone call

Absence day five (consecutive days): Year Team Lead and Designated Safeguarding Lead home visit

Absence support stage 1: Letter and Tutor meeting with parent/carer and student to offer bespoke support plan. 

Absence support stage 2: Letter and Year Leader meeting to set targets for improvement and review support plan.

Absence support stage 3: Letter and meeting with WPA to review targets and support. Medical evidence required for future absences. Create an attendance contract. 

(Please note professional judgement will be used with each individual case)