• Abbey College, Abbey Road, Hollow Lane, Ramsey Cambridgeshire PE26 1DG

Attendance Matters

Abbey College believes in the fundamental right of the student to be educated to their full potential and to participate in the life of the Abbey College community. We encourage our students to be aspirational individuals, this forms a part of our core values. Good attendance and punctuality at school is key to attainment and therefore enables students to achieve at their highest possible level.

Abbey College:

  • recognises the importance of attendance in enabling students to achieve their maximum educational potential and to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully
  • is committed to working in partnership with families and other agencies in order to achieve the best outcomes for young people.
  • provides a welcoming and caring environment where all members of the academy community feel secure and valued.
  • has an effective system of communication with students and parents/carers to support good attendance and timekeeping and to provide appropriate information and advice
  • will use an appropriate system of rewards and incentives to recognise the effort students make in achieving good attendance and punctuality.
  • follows Department of Education guidance and best practice in the use of Penalty Notices as a deterrent to the removal of a student during term time

At Abbey College we recognise that there is a very clear relationship between the regularity with which students attend school and their academic achievement.

Students with good attendance records benefit from:

  • Continuity of learning in lessons.
  • Improved performance in examinations.
  • Support and guidance with coursework.
  • Maintaining friendships.
  • Developing good habits for adult life.
  • References for further education or employment highlighting their reliability.

We therefore ask for your support to keep absenteeism to a minimum, so that we can prepare your son/daughter effectively for their future.

Students should be on school site no later than 8.35 am, the school day starts at 8.40 am and we expect all students to be in class at that time. Most students should have attendance rates of 97% or more. This is the equivalent of 6 days absent per year. BUT 100% is achieved by many students every year. As parents and carers we ask you to work with us to promote and reward good attendance and punctuality.

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Report a Student Absence

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 you can do this via email , Edulink or call 01487 812352 option 1.

Absences should be reported by 8:30am every day of the absence. If you leave a message clearly stating Student 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. If your child is absent for more than three days, parents/carers may receive a phone call home or a home visit to see if any support is required.

On returning to the College it is the student’s responsibility to catch up on work missed.

Appointments

If your child has an appointment you are required to give 2 school days’ notice where possible by emailing with the dates and timings your child is expected to be out of school. As much as possible, students 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 or drop it into our main reception 2 weeks prior to the absence.

Holidays in Term Time

As a College we recognise that financial pressures and work commitments sometimes make it difficult to take holidays outside of school time.  However, parents/carers cannot avoid the fact that students will only have one chance to get their education right and for the staff at the College to do their very best for your child we ask that you support us in this matter, therefore, holidays will not be authorised for students as the lessons they miss will have a detrimental effect on their GCSEs and academic success

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

Impact of attendance on GCSE outcome (national data)

Academic research suggests an inverse relation between absences and students' performance as this reflected on their grades. In this context, inverse relation is understood as, as long as absences increase (decrease), school performance decrease (increase).

 

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At 96% attendance – 73% of students achieve five good grades at GCSE (9-4) including English and Maths, however even at 96% attendance a student would have missed 45 hours of learning.

19 days off per school year means that a pupil has approx. 90% attendance. At 90 % attendance your child will have missed 97 lessons in one year! If this trend went throughout the 5 years a child is at secondary school, this would equate to half a year of missing school time in total.

The research shows that for every 17 days missed from school a child is likely to drop one GCSE grade in EVERY subject. Only 35% of those with attendance between 80-90% will achieve five good grades (9-4) at GCSE including English and Maths.

You can see your child’s attendance by checking Edulink.

Further information can be found here.

Attendance Support Files

Report an absence by emailing  or call 01487 812352 option 1.