Attendance

At Hillside High School we recognise that to achieve our mission statement of achieving ‘Excellence in the heart of the Community’ and ensuring you make progress you are capable of, we must ensure that your attendance is continually, and consistently seen as a high priority.  Attendance is the responsibility of all staff, pupils and parents/guardians.  In order to achieve this we have set in place specific support systems and have staff with specific responsibility for attendance.  Attendance is high profile with staff, pupils and parents. Your form room has a display of weekly attendance for the whole school and by year group.  Attendance is reported and commented on by the Principal in the weekly newsletter sent home to parents/guardians. Ensuring your regular attendance at school is the legal responsibility of your parents/guardians. Permitting absence from school without good reason creates an offence in law and may result in the prosecution of parents/guardians.

First Day Response / Communication between home and school – daily procedures

If you are unable to attend school your parent/guardian will need to ring the school office on 525 2630 between 8.00-8.30am. The call will be received by one of our admin team who will discuss the reason for your absence.

Dependant on the reason and your current attendance there will be some challenge as to why you are not able to come to school.

Each day at 9.30 am the pastoral team meet and establish who is absent and the reason why. The Attendance Trigger and Intervention Protocol will be considered and dependant on your current attendance the appropriate course of action will be decided.

Dependant again on your attendance and the reason for your absence the most likely outcome will be a member of the pastoral team visiting your home to discuss how we can get you back into school with as limited time absent as possible.

Telephone Numbers

There are times when Hillside will need to contact your parent/guardians for a range of issues, including absence, so it is essential that the school has at least two up to date contact numbers at all times.

Understanding Types of Absences

Every half day absence has to be classified by the school (not by your parent/guardians) as either authorised or unauthorised. Information about the cause of any absence is always required from your parents/guardians, preferably in writing.

Authorised

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness, medical/ dental appointments which unavoidably fall in school time, or emergencies.

Unauthorised

Unauthorised absences are those which the school does not consider reasonable. This type of absence can lead to the Local Authority using sanctions and/or legal proceedings. This includes:

• Parents/guardians keeping pupils off unnecessarily.
• Truancy before or during the school day.
• Absences which have never been properly explained.
• Shopping, looking after other children or birthdays.
• Day trips and holidays in term time.
• Oversleeping.
• Absence to look after a sibling who is unwell.
• Confusion over term dates.

Any problems with regular attendance are best sorted out between school, your parent/guardian and you.  If you are reluctant to attend parent/guardians should not condone your absence or give in to pressure to excuse you from attending school, they must contact school immediately to discuss.

RAG Letters

Each half term your parents will be sent a RAG (Red/Amber/Green/Purple) letter informing them of your attendance with advice and guidance where appropriate. The categories are as below;

Red- 85% or below.   Your attendance is a cause for concern and support will be offered, by our Educational Welfare Officer to address this issue.

Amber- 85-95.9%.   Your attendance is being monitored closely by our Attendance Officers and your Progress Leader and you may be invited to attend a school attendance panel.

Green- 96% or above.  Your attendance is excellent so far this year, we aim for all pupils' attendance to fall into this category.  We hope you are able to maintain this high standard for the rest of this academic year and congratulate you on achieving the school standard.

Medical Evidence

The school reserves the right to insist on medical evidence in order to code any absence as authorised or unauthorised and this decision will be made on an individual basis depending on your current and historic attendance.

Punctuality

If you are late to school you will be required to complete a late slip stating the reason for your lateness.  This slip should be given to your class teacher who will challenge you and record the minutes you are late on SIMS.  A copy of this slip will be sent home to your parents that day.  Poor punctuality will lead to further consequences.