Attendance

Why Attendance Is Important

Regular attendance and punctuality are crucial for your child’s academic success and social development. Poor attendance can severely hinder their progress and future opportunities.

Every Day Counts

Regular school attendance supports positive peer relationships, crucial for mental health and well-being. When your child feels unwell or anxious, deciding whether to send them to school can be challenging. But remember, solutions are a team effort involving schools, parents, and children.

What Is Good Attendance?

Good Attendance is vital if your child is to benefit fully from their education. There is a clear link between attendance and attainment. Being in school is important to a child’s achievement, wellbeing, and wider development.

At HSLC we expect all young people to have a minimum of 96% attendance.

An attendance record of 90% might seem good but is equal to 1 day missed per fortnight (19 school days missed = 95 missed lessons)

An attendance record of 80% might seem acceptable but is equal to 1 day missed per week (39 school days missed = 195 missed lessons)

What can parents/carers do to help improve attendance and punctuality?

Parents/Carers play a very important role in ensuring good attendance and punctuality. Some things which will help your child are:

Encourage full attendance.
Stress the importance of full attendance to your child.
Do not allow your child to have time off for minor complaints or illnesses: if they are well enough to be up and about, they are generally well enough to attend school.
Monitor your child’s attendance.
Do not take holidays in term time.
Try to book any medical or dental appointments out of school hours where possible or make them towards the very end of the school day.
Ensure your child is up, ready and on time to school
Ensure all school items are ready the night before
Set an alarm to be up on time

Illness

It can be hard to know if you should send your child into school or not. Unless they have a temperature of 38 degrees or above they are usually good to go.

As a parent, it can be difficult to know when to send your child into school if they are feeling unwell or mildly anxious, but finding solutions is a team effort between schools, parents and children, and there is support and information available to help you make the best decision for your child. Please ensure you make contact with the Attendance Team at HSLC. Remember a prolonged period of absence is likely to heighten a child’s anxiety about attending school in the future.

Reporting a student absence

The preferred way to report a student absence is via Edulink/Absence Reporting, otherwise using This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 01964 530258/278

Medical Appointments

For medical appointments like GP/dentist/orthodontist visits, we encourage scheduling after school or during holidays when possible. However, we understand this isn’t always feasible, and some appointments must occur during school hours.
Usually, your child can attend school before or after appointments. If not, please discuss with us to prevent unauthorised absences.
We acknowledge certain appointments, like those at specialist hospitals or out-of-county facilities, may require extended absence. Just let us know, so we can mark the absence accordingly.

Please note, supporting medical evidence will be required for all appointments - this can be in the form of a screenshot of a text, a copy of a letter/email, medical cards etc,

ABSENCE REQUEST FORM

Is my child too ill for school?

PENALTY NOTICE FINES FOR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Leave of absence (including holidays in term time)

Parents are urged not to take your child out of school for Leave of Absence. Any absence from school interrupts a child's learning and they may find it difficult to pick up their learning when arriving back to school after a lengthy period of time. If you still wish your child to have a period of time off school that is not for illness we need a Leave of Absence form to be completed at least 4 weeks prior to the leave request. This is a requirement for safeguarding reasons and also means you do not need to call us for every day that your child is absent from school during this time.

On the Leave of Absence request form, you are required to give details of why you are requesting leave. This will be passed to the Head teacher and a decision will be made as to how this will be recorded on the register. You will be notified by letter of this reason.

Should you request the leave of absence for a holiday, please note that in line with government legislation no requests for holidays can be authorised except in exceptional circumstances. For School to be able to consider an exceptional circumstances request, a form from the office must be submitted at least four weeks before the proposed holiday. School will inform you of its decision at the earliest possible time. Please note that if an absence is taken which appears to look like a holiday then the school may treat this in the same way as an unauthorised holiday in term time.

All holidays will be classed as unauthorised, unless you receive written confirmation otherwise. There are no exceptions.

All holidays that are unauthorised will be referred to the Local Authority for an Education Plenty Notice (fine) to be issued. The fine will be sent directly from East Riding of Yorkshire Council after the absence has been taken.

The Department of Education does not consider a need or desire for a holiday or other absence for the purpose of leisure and recreation to be an exceptional circumstance.

EVERY SCHOOL DAY MATTERS , PENALTY NOTICE FINES FOR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ARE CHANGING - Click here for more information

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Hornsea School & Language College

Address

Eastgate
Hornsea
HU18 1DW

Contact

Telephone: 01964 532727
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.