Attendance
Attendance Procedures
There’s a proven link between your child’s attendance and their success. We set the bar high and challenge them to attend college every day as it’s set out on their timetable. Those who achieve high attendance rates reap rewards not only in exam success, but also in developing an attitude essential to becoming work ready.
Absence Procedures
Poor attendance often leads to underachievement and may result in disciplinary action. You can find out more about this in our disciplinary policy.
Being late to class is disruptive for other students. While we understand that sometimes being late is unavoidable, if your child is persistently late, we may resort to disciplinary action.
They, or you, may have to pay a fee for missed exams and they may have to pay back financial awards or bursaries. But it’s not just their pocket that’s hit, poor attendance may jeopardise their success in becoming work ready. Employers request information about attendance, as part of a job reference request, so there’s a lot at stake.
We expect you to book holidays outside of term time. There are many weeks throughout the year to choose from, but if they do take holidays during term time, we’ll record them as unauthorised absences.
Reporting Absences and Lateness
Your child should let us know if they’re going to be late or absent from college before the start of the first lesson, or no later than 10am on the day. If they’re 16-18 you may let us know instead.
Tell us why they’re going to be late or absent on 01942 761600 (option 4) before 10am.
If they’re absent from a work placement they must let them know too.
If we don’t hear from them, we’ll contact you to find out why they’re not in college.
If they don’t let us know when they’re going to be late or absent, they’re breaching the college Code of Conduct and may be subject to the disciplinary process.
Late arrivals
If your child is late for college and has told us in advance, they should speak to their tutor at the end of the lesson to make sure we’ve recorded a late mark and not an absence mark for them.
Unauthorised absence
We expect them to make routine doctor, dental, orthodontic or optician appointments outside timetabled classes. If they do occur during your college day, we also record them as unauthorised absences. Even if your child tells us they’re going to be off sick, we record this as an unauthorised absence.
Authorised Absence
We record some absences as authorised, but your child should tell their Personal Tutor in advance to get approval.
They’ll need to provide evidence of these types of absences:
- university open days (three per academic year)
- interviews for university, apprenticeships or full-time jobs
- hospital appointments or admissions supported by a doctor’s note or hospital letter
- bereavement or a funeral
- religious holidays.
We don’t expect prior notice of serious medical emergencies or a sudden unexpected bereavement.
