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Student Absence

Regular attendance is essential for the successful education of students and good attendance is essential for high achievement.

Holidays during term time cannot be authorised. Parents / carers are requested not to take students out of school for holidays during term time but to arrange their holidays during the school holidays. Parents / carers are informed of the term dates well in advance.

The school is legally obliged to keep an accurate record of attendance.  When students are absent from school because of illness, parents / carers must inform the school.  On the student's return, an absence slip in the student planner should be completed fully by the parent / carer so there is an official record of the absence.

Students should attend medical appointments outside of school time but where this is not possible parents / carers must complete a ‘medical appointment slip’ in the student planner. Students regularly identifying poor health as a reason for absence will be asked for medical evidence.

Our electronic registration system enables us to notify parents/carers, by text to a mobile number or home landline, of a student’s absence on the first day, if no contact has been received from the parents/carers. The text will be sent repeatedly on that day until the parent/carer responds. This process will be repeated for every day the student is absent. If no response is received regarding the absence after 5 days, a letter requesting information and warning of further action by the Attendance & Welfare Officer will be sent. Persistent absenteeism will be dealt with by the Attendance Welfare Officer.  If you have any concerns about your child’s attendance please contact the Attendance Office on attend@shirley.croydon.sch.uk.

We expect our students to achieve 96% attendance per year. Any student falling below 93% will be strictly monitored by the Attendance and Welfare Officer and any student falling below 90% will fall into the persistent absence category and could be subject to legal action from penalty notices to prosecution. Our strict adherence to our attendance and punctuality policy and consistency of procedures has led to our overall unauthorised absence figures and persistent absence figures remaining significantly below the national average.  

Punctuality

Punctuality is an important part of training for adult life and is as important for high achievement as attendance. We expect a student to be late no more than 6 times in the academic year as we are aware that sometimes things happen that are outside our control e.g. traffic incidents, transport issues, breakdowns, accidents etc. This means an expected punctuality of no less than 97%.  Persistent lateness will be regarded as a serious breach of school policy. Sanctions for poor punctuality range from late detentions to seclusion. Persistent cases could be subject to legal action - please see our Attendance and Punctuality Policy - click here.