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Attendance and Punctuality
As a Church of England school we want each child to flourish academically and to realise their potential, so that they can have ‘life in all its fullness.’ (John 10:10) High levels of attendance and excellent punctuality are needed so that students can take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them at Bishop Justus. We are committed to providing a welcoming and caring school environment so that each member of the school feels valued and secure.
The government expects each child to attend school on time and be punctual to lessons. It also expects ‘parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age who are registered at school attend regularly.’ (Government School Attendance Guidance Sept 2018 )
As a Christian school, we aim to be supportive and are well aware that illness, the special needs of students and circumstances arise, that will prevent students from attending school 100% of the time. However, if your child is out of school on average for 1.5 days each term, then their attendance will be below 95% and they will be spending 184 days out of school and only 181 days in school. Should your child need time off due to illness, this figure will quickly become even lower. Because five days of school equates to 25 hours of learning in lessons, catching up with extra work out of school is unrealistic, particularly as your child will miss out on the expert guidance from their subject teacher.
The government sets 190 days for school each year and these are divided into 380 am and pm sessions. This means that there are already 175 days set aside for weekends, rest, leisure, holidays, family visits and rewarding days out. These days are important for your child to develop and flourish holistically, but likewise the 190 school days are vital in enabling your child to gain an excellent education so that they can go on to achieve their potential and live a happy and full life.
If you wish to request an authorised absence from school and make a withdrawal from learning request, please see the following letter from the Headteacher.
Withdrawal from Learning Letter
Expectations for students:
- To attend school every day and on time.
- To ensure they maximise their learning potential by taking responsibility for achieving excellent levels of attendance and punctuality.
- To discuss with their teacher/tutor/mentor/Year Coordinator any problems that may prevent full time attendance or from arriving to school on time.
- To support their fellow students and thereby their class/tutor group/year/house in winning awards that relate to attendance and punctuality.
- To follow the school procedures for dealing with attendance and punctuality e.g., bringing in signed letters from parents after a period of absence or late arrival for the school day.
- To sign and adhere to the Home School Agreement with regard to attendance & punctuality.
Expectations for Parents/carers
- To be fully supportive of the school with regard to attendance and punctuality.
- To ensure their child attends every day, on time and is prepared for the day.
- To support the school and their child (ren) by not requesting authorised absence for holidays during term time and minimising where possible dental appointments and medical appointments during the school day and term time.
- To follow the school procedures for dealing with attendance through making contact with the school on the first day of absence and every day thereafter ensuring that they send a signed letter to the school when their child returns.
- To contact the school immediately if they have concerns or if there are issues preventing full time attendance.
- To sign and adhere to the Home School Agreement with regard to attendance & punctuality.
Attendance and Punctuality Policy
Exceptional Leave of Absence
The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 states that Head teacher may not authorise any holiday taken in term time. They are only allowed to consider a leave of absence if the circumstances are classed as exceptional, i.e. compassionate grounds and permission has been requested to the Head teacher. It is not the right of the parent to take children away during term time.
Parents will be expected to write to the Headteacher to request a leave of absence at least 3 weeks in advance.
To contact our attendance officer, Yvonne Line please email -
