Attendance
Braunton Academy is committed to providing a full and efficient educational experience to all students.
Students need to attend school regularly if they are to take full advantage of the educational opportunities offered to them. Irregular attendance undermines the educational process and can lead to educational disadvantage. There is evidence that truancy places children at risk and can result in students being drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour.
A few word of wisdom:
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90% attendance = half a day missed Every week
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90% attendance over one year = 4 Missed weeks
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90% attendance over 5 years = Half a school year missed
Department of Education research has identified a clear link between poor attendance at school and academic achievement: of students who miss more that 50% of school ONLY 3% manage to achieve 5 or more GCSE’s A* – C. Whereas, 77% of pupils who have over 95% attendance achieve five or more GCSE’s A* - C
% Attendance % Chance of Achieving 5 A* - C
95% 77%
94% 74%
93% 60%
92% 53%
91% 44%
A small, but significant group of pupils still accounts for a disproportionate number of absences 3.6% of all pupils account for nearly 20% of all absences.
It is the policy of Braunton Academy to celebrate achievement. Attendance is a critical factor to a productive and successful school career. The Academy actively promotes and encourages 100 percent attendance for all students, giving a high priority to conveying to parents and students 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 communication systems that can be utilised whenever there is concern about attendance.
If there are problems that affect a student's attendance we will investigate, identify and strive in partnership with parents and students to resolve those problems, as quickly and efficiently as possible. We will adopt a clearly focused approach aimed at returning the student to full attendance at all times.
Our Attendance Aims:
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To improve student attendance and punctuality.
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To ensure student entitlement to a full-time education is monitored and supported.
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To encourage students and parents/carers to comply with the legal requirements of school attendance.
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To encourage and reward good habits of attendance and punctuality.
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To ensure presence at all lessons and timetabled activities.
Legal Framework
1. Parents/carers are legally responsible for ensuring that a child of compulsory school age receives a suitable education. They will be encouraged to contact the school early on the first day of absence and keep the school informed of any reasons for non-attendance.
2. Children registered at school must by law attend regularly, achieving the Government set target of 94%.
If your child is unable to attend school, for any reason, we would ask that you let us know about their absence as soon as you are able on the first day that they cannot attend.
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01271 812221 is the Academy phone number and you can follow the ‘Dial 1 for.....’ instructions and leave a message, or even speak to real people.
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ParentMail can also be used to report your child's absence.
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Lastly, there’s a dedicated email: attendance@braunton.academy that you may use. Just please provide us with your child’s name, Year Group, Tutor Group and some explanation (not too graphic!) of the reason for their absence, please.
Absence from education/school comes in two forms; either Authorised or Unauthorised. If you let us know when your child is away from school, we can Authorise the absence which will not affect their attendance figure.If you fail to let us know when your child is away from school, the absence will be Unauthorised. This will affect their attendance figure.
Absence Request Forms can be collected from Student Reception.
Absences will not be 'Authorised' if your child is in Year 10 or in Year 11; has an attendance figure of less than 95%; is not thought to be an Exceptional Circumstance.