Attendance & Absence

Year 7-Year 11 Absence Information

Reporting a student absence

Call our dedicated absence line: 01283 376751

Please ensure you tell us:

• Your child’s name
• Your name
• Their tutor group
• The reason for the absence

Please note, absences must be reported each day the child is absent.

Request for leave of absence

Please note:

• You must provide documents to support the reason for absence e.g. proof of travel, exam or competition confirmation.
• Headteachers are unable to authorise Leave of Absence in Term Time unless the reasons for this are deemed to be exceptional.
• Leave of absence, which is deemed not to be exceptional, or is not applied for prior to the absence being taken, is classed as Unauthorised Leave of Absence

Late arrivals

We kindly request that all students are on site, ready for registration, at 8.55am. Students arriving after 9am will be recorded as late arriving to school. An accumulation of late arrivals may lead to behaviour sanctions. Should a student arrive late due to dedicated school transport issues, their late arrival will not be recorded as late.

Unauthorised leave:

A period of unauthorised leave of absence may result in a parent receiving a penalty notice fine. Should a fixed penalty notice be issued, the fine applies to ‘per parent/carer and per child’. This is regardless of who applied for the leave.

For a First offence the Penalty Notice fine would be: –

• £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, rising to
• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 21-28 days.

For a Second offence within 3-years of the first penalty notice being issued, the penalty notice fine would be:

• £160 per parent, per child if paid between 28 days.

Following the second offence every new offence within the 3-year period will be prosecuted under S444.1 of the Education Act 1996. I must advise you that if the prosecution takes place, the maximum fine is £1,000 per parent, per child. This reflects the seriousness of unauthorised absence from school.

Medical Appointments & Evidence

Medical appointments in a school date: Medical evidence can be taken to the data hub by the student or emailed to – attendance@jths.co.uk

Appointments should, where possible, be arranged outside the school day. If they are unable to be scheduled at any other time, please provide us with details about the appointment before the absence is taken.

Should your child have an ongoing medical illness please do let the school know so that a medical health care plan can be completed.

Students in Years 7-11 who are leaving site for appointments etc during the day must be collected by a parent / carer. Students should present themselves at the Data Hub where they will sign out and wait for a parent/carer to arrive, before joining the parent/carer in the main reception area.

If the student is being collected by another adult, parents/carers must inform the school in advance who will be collecting the child. For safeguarding reasons, we will not allow any student to leave school premises with another adult without prior consent. Attempting to gain consent at the time the student is being collected may result in a delay in the student being permitted to leave site.

Students will not be permitted to leave in a taxi alone even if this is pre-booked by a parent.

Reasons we may request medical evidence:

• If the student is absent for 6 or more days in a row
• If we believe the student is absent for reasons other than illness.
• If the student will be attending a medical/dental appointment during the school day.

What is medical evidence?

An appointment card or letter, copy of a prescription, blood test form, confirmation of a booked appointment (text/email), dated letter or note from a medical professional, confirmation of test result (text/email). This is not an exhaustive list.

Are you worried about your child’s attendance?

• Is your child regularly missing school due to ill health?
• Have there been a change in home circumstances that impact of their school attendance or lateness?
• Does your child refuse to attend school?
• Are you unsure about how absence and lateness has been recorded?
• If you have any concerns about your child’s attendance or their lateness please contact the Attendance Intervention Manager on 01283 247 800.

Attendance Key:

• 97-100 % – Well Done
• 93-97% – Risk of Underachievement
• 90-93% – Serious risk of Underachievement
• Below 90% – Serious cause for concern & underachievement. Attendance Intervention Manager Involved.

There are a number of ways that as parents/carers you can support your child:

• Encourage them to be up early enough to have a healthy breakfast before they come to school.
• Ensure they follow a healthy lifestyle including the appropriate amount of sleep, exercise, relaxation and study.
• Ensure that they arrive punctually with all the equipment/kit they need for the day. If you bring your child to school in the car and traffic is queuing up in the village, to prevent them being issued with a late mark, please encourage them to get out and walk instead of waiting to be dropped by the gate. If the weather will have an impact on travel times, please allow extra time to avoid lateness.
• Check Go 4 Schools to ensure expectations and homework deadlines are met.
• Attend parents’/carers’ evenings.
• Encourage your child, or make contact with school yourself, to discuss any issues or concerns which you may have at the earliest opportunity.
• JTMAT schools will never authorise the unilateral withdrawal of students by their parents as a result of a parental concern or complaint.  Such absences can be damaging to children’s education, are unnecessary, do not allow staff to deal with the issue efficiently, and, as a consequence, will be unauthorised.

Attendance expectations:

At John Taylor High School, we believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education and to fulfil their potential. Missing school leaves students vulnerable to falling behind. The reason which is most often provided, for a student to be absent from school, is that they are too unwell. At John Taylor High School, during the academic year 2024-25, 15,136 sessions or 7568 days, were lost due to students being too unwell to attend. We ask that as far as possible, parents and carers encourage their children to be up early enough to have a healthy breakfast before they come to school and ensure they follow a healthy lifestyle including the appropriate amount of sleep, exercise, relaxation and study.

Should a student be absent for more than 5 consecutive school days, due to illness, additional documentation is requested to support and validate this prolonged absence from school. Supporting medical documentation may also be requested for students with previous low attendance. This can be emailed into school at attendance@jths.co.uk . Should your child have any ongoing medical issues, please do let the school know as a Medical Health Care Plan may need to be completed. A virtual or in- person meeting is also offered to students who have an absence for more than 5 consecutive days.

At John Taylor High School, we are proud of our high expectations and the positive collaboration with our students, parents, carers and other key stake holders, which enables us to achieve high attendance levels. We believe that students need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education, maintain their wellbeing and to fulfil their potential.

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