Care Respect Inspire

Absences Information

Attendance Matters

At Pensby High School we know that absence from school can impact on your child’s:

Chance to make the expected level of progress
Opportunity to get good results in examinations.
Adult life opportunities for employment and earnings.

In order to support your child to have good attendance we have a range of strategies including:

On-going analysis of percentage attendance, if their attendance falls to:

95% – 100%	Form Tutor
90% – 94.9%	Head of Learning
Below 90%	Locality Attendance Officer and Assistant Headteacher with oversight for Pastoral

Your child will meet with a member of the pastoral team for their Key Stage in order to discuss barriers to attendance and to set targets for improvement.

90% AND UNDER

Unsatisfactory, persistently absent

BETWEEN 90.1% AND 92.9%

Well below average

BETWEEN 93% AND 94.9%

Below average

BETWEEN 95% AND 95.9%

Average

BETWEEN 96% AND 97%

Good

98% AND ABOVE

Very good

Punctuality will be closely monitored.

Lates to morning registration

6 lates in 1 term will result in a 1 hour pastoral detention in the Inclusion Unit on a Thursday at 3:25pm. Parents will be notified via email from Class Charts in advance.

Failure to attend Thursday detention would result in a SLT detention on a Friday for 90 minutes starting at 3:25pm.

If your child arrives late after 9:30am (when registers close) they will receive a ‘U’ mark, which is an unauthorised absence and affects percentage attendance.

If your child receives 10 unauthorised absences code ‘U’ then this may lead to a fixed penalty notice fine for each parent/carer.

Help Your Child

Try to make sure they go to bed at a reasonable time.
Have a morning routine, get them up early enough to get ready and travel to school.
Every effort should be made to arrange appointments outside school hours, if this is not possible please bring your child into school before the appointment and return them afterwards.
Please do not keep you child off for minor reasons.

Medical appointments

If an absence is known in advance, such as a medical appointment, written notice must be given. A written note detailing the time the pupil will be collected from school and by whom, together with a copy of the appointment card/letter is required. (Unavoidable absences not known in advance may be authorised with a written note and a copy of the appointment card/letter when pupil returns to school and no later than 5 days after absence).

No pupil in KS3 or KS4 will be allowed to leave the school premises unless accompanied by a known adult.

Please note that if a child is not present during morning or afternoon registration their attendance will be affected. Pupils are required to attend school before and after appointments.

We recognise that sometimes absence is unavoidable, but when a student’s absence falls below 95% it gives us concern.

Remember to Ring

Always contact us if your child is going to be absent from school.

1^ST Day of Absence

Phone school absence line on 0151 342 0570 or email schooloffice@psf.wirral.sch.uk with reason (‘unwell’ is not sufficient information) before 9:30am. If no notification is received a truancy call will be sent. Please then continue to call in to school on each subsequent day of absence to update us on your child’s condition, otherwise a truancy call will be sent each day.

A letter explaining the absence must also be received by school no later than 5 days after their return. If no written letter/email is received the absence will be unauthorised.

It is the responsibility of the parent to send into school medical notes/letters explaining absences.

Please be aware that if your child’s attendance falls below 90%, absences will not be authorised without a formal medical note from a GP. Please be aware that 10 unauthorised sessions may result in a fixed penalty notice being issued which is £60 per parent/per child paid within 21 days or £120 if paid after this time but within 28 days.

Leave of Absence Request

Leave of Absence forms are on our school website and are also available at the school reception or the main office. A form must be completed and agreed before the absence takes place at least 1 school week in advance for this to be processed. Generally, holiday requests will not be granted.

Parents/carers who take their children out of school without the Headteachers approval may be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice per parent per child. Payment of a Fixed Penalty Notice is £60 if paid within 21 days £120 if paid after this time but within 28 days.