Attendance

Attendance and Punctuality

Excellent attendance at school is important to allow a child to fulfil their potential. We think it is very important that all our pupils benefit from 190 days of learning to ensure they make progress and achieve the results they should. If a school can improve its attendance by 1%, this can result in a 5 - 6% improvement in attainment. We are asking you to support the school by ensuring that your child achieves excellent attendance.

Let us introduce you to our Attendance Champions. They are a friendly, approachable and non-judgemental team who are here to support and signpost you with any queries or issues you have related to your child's attendance at school. To speak to one of our champions, please call us on 01634 845242 to make an appointment where we will be more than happy to help.

Mrs Coggins - Our Administration Officer / Attendance Lead

Ms Morrish - Family Liaison Manager

Mr Phillips - Deputy head

Otherwise, here are some of the ways in which you can help our school achieve excellent attendance:

The school is closed for 14 weeks a year when you can take holidays and travel abroad. Where there are exceptional circumstances for a pupil to be absent during term time, you can make a written request to the Headteacher. However, the Headteacher's decision is final. You do not have a right to take term time leave.
We expect pupils to arrive at the school on time. Late arrivals disrupt the education of others. Pupils arriving after the register has closed will be marked in the register as having an unauthorised absence.
We do not expect pupils to come to school when they are sick, but those with regular sickness absence will be expected to provide us with medical evidence before further absences are authorised.
Avoid medical and dental appointments during the school day.
If you or your children are having difficulties that impact on attendance, please make an appointment with a member of staff to discuss additional support.

Effective from 19th February 2024; we require all absences to be reported to the absence line on 01634 845242, select option 1 before 9am each day. Please leave a voicemail clearly stating:

child's name
class and
reason for absence (giving details of their symptoms if unwell). If you would like a call back, please request this in your voicemail.

Alongside this we will also require;

An email or handwritten letter explaining the absence in full. We have created a form to make it easier which can be obtained from here Absence Explanation Form or hard copy from the school office. We WILL NOT be able to authorise any absence without these steps being followed. We require a written explanation - this can be the form above or an email to the Office.

It is important to note we cannot authorise more than 3 days of absence if due to sickness, without medical evidence. If your child is still too unwell to attend school after 3 days we would expect you to seek medical intervention by seeing a GP, Pharmacist or another medical professional. It is the parents responsibility to provide the medical evidence which can be in the form of a GP appointment card/email/text confirmation, hospital discharge letter, photo evidence of the child's prescription or medication (clearly showing the date the medication was prescribed and child’s name).

You can check your child’s attendance percentage by logging into the Parent Arbor App. If your child’s attendance is 93% or lower, they are classed as a persistent absentee and therefore no absences will be authorised without medical evidence. It is the parents responsibility to ensure their child attends school everyday and Delce Academy cannot provide transport. If you are experiencing any issues with getting your child to school or have any other barriers to attendance, please call the school on 01634 845242 to arrange a meeting and discuss this.

We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused some parents to feel less confident with assessing whether their child is well enough to be in school so we have laid out some information which we hope you will find helpful including information found on this link - NHS - Is my child well enough to go to school.

There is wide agreement among health professionals and educational professionals that school attendance is vital to the life chances of children and young people. Being in school improves health, wellbeing and socialisation throughout the life course. The greatest benefits come from children and young people attending school regularly.

The Department for Education (DfE) have stated ‘It is usually appropriate for parents and carers to send their children to school with respiratory illnesses. This would include general cold symptoms: a cough, runny nose or sore throat.’ If your child requires paracetamol (calpol) to help alleviate symptoms such as these, then please contact the school office on 01634 845242, option 2 to discuss whether it is possible to have this administered at school. If you are unsure on whether your child should be in school or not due to not feeling 100%, please bring them in and speak to a member of staff. We will ensure to keep an extra close eye on them and inform you of any changes or whether they need to go home.

Reasons for absences that will not be authorised are listed below. Please read and familiarise yourself with these.

We have listed some helpful links for families which gives you access to resources support you with attendance:

Attendance is monitored closely by our Attendance Advisory Practitioner from Medway Council.

You will receive an update on your child's attendance at least three times a year. If your child is unable to attend school please call the office by 8:30am.

Please CLICK HERE if you would like to request leave of absence from school for your child.