Attendance & Punctuality

Attendance and punctuality are extremely important to us, as they should be to our students and their parents/carers.

Evidence clearly shows that the students who do reach their academic potential are the ones with persistent absence.

At Garforth we want students to attend all timetable sessions punctually and maintain a minimum of 95% attendance. This includes supervised study, assemblies and form time.

Students must be available between the hours of 8.25 – 16.30 Mon-Fri in case we need to alter a timetable or deliver one off events.

It is the responsibility of the student to catch up on any work missed as a result of absence.

To report an absence/late:

All absences and lates should be reported by the parents/carers to the 6^th form attendance team by telephoning the absence line.

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This should be done each morning that they are unable to attend or are running late

To report a planned absence:

Where students must take time off due to unavoidable circumstances, such as non-routine medical/dental appointments, a driving test, a university open day or Duke of Edinburgh Award, they should complete a green absence slip (giving at least 24hrs notice) and ask a parent/carer to sign it. Parents/carers may be contacted to confirm, or we may request to see evidence.

Communicating Absence

If a student is absent when the register is taken and we have been given no reason for their absence, this will be communicated daily by text to students & parents. We would ask that a parent/carer responds promptly to any absence text with the reason for absence.

If a reason for absence hasn’t been provided after 5 days absence and we are unable to make contact with parents/carers then we will request a welfare visit to take place.

Failure to comply with any of the above may result in a meeting with the students Learning Manager and/or a reduction in payment of the student bursary.

Recent national research into attendance in Post 16 setting has found that:

Student attendance