Attendance Expectations
Excellent attendance is crucial for you to achieve your goals
Please contact: Mrs J Walton/Sixth Form Attendance Officer
Tel: 01452 509249 Email:
At St Peter's Sixth Form we expect 95% attendance from our students as research shows that students with the highest attendance achieve the best GCSEs and A'Level/BTEC results. Our students' attendance is monitored rigorously on a daily basis.
Parents will automatically receive a truancy email if the student is not marked in at registration. Every absence from school has to be classified by the school (not by the parents or carers), as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why reasons for absence are always required. A yellow absence form must be completed on all occasions in advance unless it’s an emergency appointment.
School must be contacted by a parent, carer or guardian on the first day of absence and all subsequent days (including part days missed) before 9:00am. Failure to contact the school will result in an unauthorised absence.
Daily Attendance
Students must be in school between the hours of 9:00am and 3:30pm Monday to Friday, however permission is given to all students who do not have a lesson period 4 or 5 on a Monday to Friday to leave at the beginning of break 2. Students must leave site promptly by 1:10pm. Please do not abuse this privilege because you will be sanctioned for truanting a timetabled lesson and your lanyard will be withdrawn preventing you from leaving site early or at break times.
New Year 12s student who have proven by October half term 2024 that your attendance, behaviour and work ethics is good will be allowed to leave site at 1:10pm if they have purchased a school lanyard. (Please refer to our Year 12 welcome letter regarding payment of £15 enrolment fee which contributes to the cost of each student(s) lanyard – enabling students to leave site at break 1 and 2).
Registration, Personal Development and Timetabled Lessons
Students must attend registration each morning from 9:00am-9:25am. Punctuality to the start of the day and timetabled lessons is essential.
Students are expected to attend every timetabled session published on their programme of study punctually, including tutor time, personal development and supervised study in the learning centre. Any student missing timetabled sessions without authorisation, will be referred to their Head of Year and an appropriate sanction will be applied accordingly for this truancy.
Attendance to study periods in the Learning Centre
All students who have study periods 1,2, or 3 on any day of Monday to Friday must register in the learning centre at the start of each lesson and work quietly in this area for the duration of that lesson. If you are not registered your absence will be recorded as unauthorised absence.
Attendance to GCSE retake Maths or English Timetabled lessons
GCSE retake Maths and English are a timetabled part of the sixth form curriculum. Attendance is compulsory for all sixth form students to these timetabled lessons as it is a government requirement that all students leaving education should achieve these qualifications.
Procedures for Cover Lessons, due to teacher absence
If a teacher is out of school and the lesson is not covered by a replacement teacher, all students must go to their timetabled lesson as usual. If the teacher does not appear after 10 minutes – all students must go to the learning centre and sign in on a cover sheet to obtain a mark for this timetabled lesson. Failure to do so will result in an unauthorised absence mark for this timetabled lesson. Students must NOT sign in fellow students. You must only sign in at the start of each timetabled lesson only. you must not sign in early for periods later in the day this will result in an unauthorised absence on your record.
Absence due to illness
If a student is unwell, school should be contacted by a parent, carer or guardian on the first day (and any subsequent days) of absence (or where part of a day is to be missed) and before 9:00am. If this is not possible, then you should bring in a note signed by a parent or guardian as soon as you return to school to give to the sixth form attendance officer.
If you fail to make school aware of your absence, then this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence. Upon your return you will be expected to collect and catch up on any work that was missed. All students must check EduLink for any work that has been set.
Other Absence
Non-emergency dental/doctors’ appointments and driving lessons should not be arranged during the school day. Students may be asked to provide medical evidence in certain circumstances.
Paid Employment should not be arranged during school hours. This is illegal.
Holidays during term time will NOT be authorised.
It is understood that there are occasionally reasons for why you need to be absent from school. In such cases of known absence you must complete the yellow absence request form available from the sixth form reception or the learning centre. This form must be signed by the tutors of any lessons you will miss, parents/carers and Head of Year in advance of the planned absence. A yellow form is required for ALL absences even when a student has no lessons on their timetable.
Students who have been absent must ensure that all missed work is followed up in liaison with subject teachers. All students must check Edulink for any work that has been set.
Planned Absence – Yellow Absence Form
Yellow absence forms are available outside Sixth Form reception or in the learning centre. This form must be completed by the student, signed by the tutors of any lessons you miss, parents/carers and Head of Year in advance of the planned absence. A yellow absence form is required for all absences even when a student has no lessons on their timetable. Follow this link to find the yellow planned absence form.
Punctuality to school and signing in/out on Watchtower
The St Peters’ school day starts at 9am. Students MUST attend registration each morning from 9:00am – 9:25am. Punctuality is important, if you arrive late to school after 9am, you will be given a late mark on your register by your tutor and a next day afterschool detention sanction will be given. It is a legal requirement that we know who is in the school building at all times. Students must make sure that they login to Watchtower, located in the main school Reception, each time they enter the building late and each time they leave the building early throughout the day for a planned absence.
Poor attendance/punctuality will be dealt with over a progression of interventions. Please see full attendance policy on school website for further details.
Actions taken to address attendance issues
Attendance is monitored on a daily basis. Parents will automatically receive a truancy call if the student is not marked in at registration. As necessary, the Sixth Form Team will intervene in the following
- Where poor attendance/punctuality is recorded the student will meet to discuss this with their form tutor. Appropriate targets will be set. Attendance/punctuality will then be monitored closely for 2 weeks. For regular lateness/attendance next day afterschool detentions will be given to students alternatively students will be placed on Stage 1 Student Support Plan and lose their privileges.
- If no improvement is noted within 2 weeks the student will be put on daily checks for a further 2 weeks. The Head of Year will review with the student each morning. Contact will be made with home by phone or email to inform parents/carers. Students will have additional privileges withdrawn.
- Continued poor attendance/punctuality will result in a meeting between the student, parents/carers and the Head or Deputy of Sixth Form.
If there is no significant improvement and attendance falls below 90% the school reserves the right to charge for exam entries. If attendance falls below 85% this is deemed by the government to denote a persistent absentee and unless there are exceptional or extenuating circumstances students will NOT be entered for their examinations.
Unauthorised Absence
The following reasons for absence will not be authorised (this list is not exhaustive):
- Driving Lessons
- Shopping Trips
- Studying at home outside any allocated study leave
- Holidays (see above)
- Parents/carers keeping students off school unnecessarily
- Truancy during the school day
- Absences which have never been properly explained (unexplained absence)
- Looking after siblings
- Day Trips
- Birthdays
- Work experience (excluding school organised work experience/enrichment)
- Interviews (excluding college/university/apprenticeship interviews)
- Paid employment should not be arranged during school hours. This is illegal.
Any student with a continuous absence of longer than five school days is expected to provide a medical note in the case of illness before the absence will be authorised. Should a student require more than ten school days absence due to illness, parents/carers are expected to contact the school to discuss the student’s ability to continue with their study programme. Cases will be considered on an individual basis. Any student with unauthorised continuous absence of longer than 20 school days will be assumed to have left the school and will be removed from the school roll.
A FULL COPY OF THE SIXTH FORM ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY POLICY CAN BE FOUND ON THE MAIN SCHOOL WEBSITE
