Attendance Vision
At Chellaston Academy we believe that good attendance supports the school vision of working with Integrity, Care and Excellence. The school strives to provide a welcoming, caring environment, where each member of the school community is treated with unconditional positive regard.
All school staff will work with and support students and their families to ensure each student attends school regularly and punctually. The school target for all students is 95% which means they miss less than 9 days across the school year.
Higher rates of absence can mean a child misses out on the social aspects of school life and may lead to challenges feeling ‘connected’ to the school community.
Missing lessons can make it difficult for a child to stay on top of their work; they may start to feel ‘behind’ and struggle to catch up. This can then have an impact on both their progress and their emotional wellbeing.
90% attendance (the threshold for being ‘persistently absent’) roughly amounts to 1 day of absence a fortnight. This would be a whole month of school missed by the end of the year!
There is strong data-driven evidence to show the direct link between attendance at school and achievement. Among pupils with no missed sessions over KS4, 83.7% achieved grades 9 to 4 in English and Maths compared to 35.6% of pupils who were persistently absent – see link below.
It is never too late to make a ‘fresh start’ and improve attendance; 54% of pupils who missed more than 20 days in Year 10, but then were rarely absent in Year 11 passed at least 5 GCSE compared to 36% of pupils who were persistently absent in both years.
Missing Children, Missing Grades. Children’s Commissioner. Nov 2023
We want all our community to understand that we want to work together to ensure that your child is at school.
Reducing Barriers – Information for parents/carers
How we can help? What can parents do to support?
Contact
Daily
All absences need to be reported to the school before 8:30am each day your child is away:
Email – attendance@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Tel – 01332 702502
If we do not receive a reason for your child’s absence, you will receive a call during the morning from a member of the pastoral team. If we are not able to get through we may follow up with a text message, voicemail, email or another call later in the day; this is a vital part of our safeguarding practice.
If your child is absent for 3 days and we are still unable to contact you, we may make a home visit.
Weekly
If your child is absent for more than 3 days (with a known reason), your child’s Deputy Head of Year will make contact at some point during the absence to check on their wellbeing, see how we can support, and to maintain a feeling of connectedness and care to help your child feel happy about returning to school when they are able to.
If you are concerned about your child’s attendance and are experiencing difficulties in getting your child to attend regularly, please don’t hesitate to make contact with:
Steph Dennett – Deputy HOY 7 – s.dennett@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Anna Marvill – Deputy HOY 8 – a.marvill@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Ben Roome – Head/Deputy HOY 9 – b.roome@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Hayley Battrick – Deputy HOY 10 – h.battrick@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Jade Coulson – Deputy HOY 11 – j.coulson@chellaston.derby.sch.uk
Termly
If we are concerned about the amount of days your child is missing, or the reasons for your child’s absence, we will make contact with yourselves.
We also send letters each term to those who are classed as ‘persistently absent’ as a formal record of communications.
Guidance Document
Members of the Attendance Action Alliance have worked with the Department for Education to develop this short guide which helps parents understand how they can work with their school and local authority to support their children to attend school and get the right support.
