Attendance and Absences

Attendance

Why is attendance and punctuality so important?

      

 

Impact of attendance on GCSE outcome (national data)

 

Absences

If your child is unwell and unable to attend school you have a legal requirement to inform the school on each day of absence.

If you are reporting your child’s absence from school today, email: cam-absence@cambournevc.org or call 01954 284000 (option 1)  by 8:30am every day of the absence and leave a message clearly stating Pupil Name, Tutor Group, Reason for Absence (a brief description of the illness).

If you fail to inform the school, we are legally required to make contact with you, to ensure the child’s safety. Even if they have been absence on the previous day, we cannot assume they are still at home poorly.

Please be aware that we require a notification for every day that the pupil is absent.

Appointments

If your child has an appointment you are required to give 2 school days’ notice where possible by emailing cam-absence@cambournevc.org with the dates and timings your child is expected to be out of school. As much as possible, pupils should be in school prior to/after the appointment.

Planned Absence

If you would like to request a planned absence from school, please complete a Request for Planned Absence From and email the completed form to cam-absence@cambournevc.org or drop it into our main reception 2 weeks prior to the absence.

Please note, changes to Section 444 of The Education Act 1996 brought into effect in September 2013, removes the right of Head Teachers to authorise term time leave; therefore all applications for leave in term time will be unauthorised unless there are exceptional circumstances that we are made aware of.

Please refer to Cambridge County Council for information on pupil absence from school and your legal position. 

 

The Education Welfare Officer

The Cam Academy Trust employs an Education Welfare Officer (EWO), Rachael Panther: RPanther@catrust.co.uk. The school and EWO always try to work with pupils and parents at an early stage to resolve problems. This is nearly always successful. However, the EWO also has a legal role and if other ways of resolving attendance have failed, these officers can use legal sanctions such as Penalty Notices or prosecutions in the Magistrates court. Rachael can be contacted via the school reception.

If there is a concern with your child’s level of attendance at school, we follow a five-stage approach called ‘Attendance Matters at CamVC’. Examples of letters sent as part of the Attendance Matters can be viewed from this webpage (menu down the left hand side). 

Further Support

Please contact your child's pastoral team for more support as working together we want to remove barriers to learning.