ABSENCE & ATTENDANCE 

Absence

To report an absence please use the My Child At School App (MCAS).

If you are unable to use MCAS, please phone the school reception on 01665 602166. If you are unable to speak to someone, please leave a voicemail message with as much detail as possible including an expected return to school date. 

Attendance at school is vital to achieve success. Research shows that 17 days of absence from school can lead to a drop in achievement of one grade at GCSE. 

Any child who has an attendance of 90% or less is considered to be ‘persistently absent’. If you or your child need support with attendance, please contact your child’s head of year in the first instance. The school works closely with the Education Welfare Service to support children and families. 

Attendance

We have a target of 96% attendance for all students.

You can help your child achieve this by:

• Ensuring they arrive at school on time

• Trying to make hospital, doctor and dentist appointments outside school hours wherever possible.

• Not taking holidays during term time.

• 90% attendance sounds good – but that means 1 day off every fortnight: almost 4 weeks off every school year: over 1 school year in a child’s school career.

• Research shows that attendance of 85% or below will reduce G.C.S.E. results by at least one grade.

We aim to support families by:

• Encouraging good attendance and intervening promptly with unexplained absence.

• Rewarding good attendance and improving attendance and providing exciting and stimulating learning opportunities so children want to come to school.

• Working positively with parents/carers in gathering and analysing attendance data regularly.

• Working positively with education welfare officers to support pupils.

Punctuality

Better late than never, but better never late!

Our school day begins at 8:50 a.m.

If a child comes to school every day at 9:05 a.m. they have missed 75 minutes of school education in a week which would add up to 7.5 hours each half term.

IN ALL CASES OF ABSENCE parents/carers should please:

• Only keep your child away from school if they are visibly ill.

• Use the MCAS app in the first instance or telephone school on every day of absence, as early as possible, please keep us informed.

• Avoid medical appointments in school time, but if absolutely necessary, please bring your child to school for the remainder of the day.

• Please provide medical evidence where possible, for any appointment, which will be kept confidentially on file to support your child’s absence. This could be a paper copy or via an email to admin@dchs-alnwick.uk.

• Ensure your child speaks to their form tutor upon return to school, they will be able to support them in collecting any relevant work.

Leave of Absence including holidays

Wherever possible, we would like to encourage families to take their children on holiday during the 13 weeks of school holidays each year. It is vital for children to be at school every day to maximise learning.

We understand the importance of families being together for their annual holiday and the benefits this brings for the children. We also understand the difficulties some families have in taking their family holiday out of term time and would encourage parents to discuss these issues with us.

Government guidelines state that Headteachers can only grant leave of absence in exceptional circumstances but not normally for family holidays.

School will be unable to authorise leave of absence for family holidays during term time. Children who are absent as a result of a family holiday will be marked with an “unauthorised absence”. If any parent feels that they may have extenuating circumstances they should write to the Headteacher with full details for his consideration.

We do understand that from time to time we need to authorise absence on compassionate grounds e.g. the death of a family member, interview, participation in a recognised sporting activity, university visit, and in any of these instances, parents should contact Mrs Donaldson (admin@dchs-alnwick.uk) to agree necessary arrangements.

If you do take your children out of school, it is very important for families to formally let us know where children are.

Illness & Accident

The school provides first aid facilities and a medical room. Children who become ill will be asked to try to continue their day however if it becomes clear that they are too unwell, they will be cared for whilst parents/carers are asked to come to school to collect them. In the case of accidents, a wide range of responses may be needed, from calling out the emergency services to administering minor first aid. It is essential that we have emergency contact telephone numbers, ideally for two contacts. Where contact during school hours is difficult, or primary contacts work a long way from school, the numbers of other appropriate people, e.g. grandparents, can be helpful.

If non-urgent hospital treatment is needed, we will contact home and ask you to arrange it. We hope that you understand that only in exceptional circumstances will school staff escort a child to hospital for non-urgent treatment. However, in cases of emergency hospitalisation by ambulance, school staff will remain at hospital with all children aged 16 and under, and with older children who need support, until an appropriate adult arrives.

Medical

It is important that we know about medical conditions which may affect a child’s wellbeing in school so that we can provide the correct support. Parents/carers will be asked for this information when children enrol in school. However if your child's medical needs change, please email admin@dchs-alnwick.uk and we will update your child's records. If you wish to speak to someone about this, please contact your child's head of year in the first instance. 

More information

If you need to discuss any matters during the school year regarding your child's attendance you can contact the Schools Attendance Support Officer Mrs Rhodes l.rhodes@dchs-alnwick.uk.