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Attendance
Attendance
Good attendance is perhaps the single most important factor in determining whether a student makes progress commensurate with their ability. A single day’s absence means at least two days’ loss of progress.
We advise all parents that students should attend school every day unless there is a genuine reason for absence i.e. too poorly to attend school, an essential medical appointment or due to unforeseen circumstances.
Parents, by law, are responsible for ensuring that:
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Their children receive full time education
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Their children regularly attend education
Chiswick School will work with our families to promote good attendance and support our parents or carers to ensure all students are in school, learning, as often as possible. It is our ambition for our schools to significantly exceed local authority and national average regarding attendance and persistent absenteeism.
Attendance recognition
Throughout the academic year we try to recognise the attendance achievements of our pupils. We do this through a number of ways:
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Weekly emails home to inform parents of their child's attendance
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Awards Assemblies - highlighting 100% attendance and most improved attendance
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Rewards activities, such as watching a movie or rollerblading - highlighting 100% attendance and most improved attendance
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Weekly raffle ticket drawer for pupils with 100% attendance and punctuality for that week
Attendance Calculator
Attendance Champions: Mrs Lounds (Assistant Headteacher)
Attendance Manager: Miss Kostanich
Deputy Learning Coordinators – Attendance:
- Year 7 - Ms Werndley
- Year 8 - Ms Whitaker
- Year 9 - Ms Ahmed
- Year 10 - Ms Neigh
- Year 11 - Ms Bhardwaj
- Year 12 and 13 - Ms Perlevic
Hounslow School Attendance Support Service: Tony Pattar
Attendance Assistant: Mr Bhangoo and Ms Hornblow
Attendance Hotline: 020 8747 6655
If your child is ill and needs to be off school please contact the attendance office each day of absence, the easiest way of contacting for absence is by sending a message through the parent mail app
We will need to know:
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Your child’s name.
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Your child’s year and form group
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Why they are not in school
Parents are requested not to arrange family holidays during term time.
You should not expect school to agree to an absence for a holiday in term time – the law says that parents do not have the right to take their child out of school for holidays during term time and have only allowed schools to approve term time leave in exceptional circumstances.
If you feel there are exceptional circumstances why your child needs to be absent from school, you should apply, in advance, by filling in the form found here: https://forms.gle/18hfxhwDRtTRrMts6 .
If the school refuses a request for leave of absence and the child is still taken out of school this will be recorded as unauthorised absence and noted in the child’s record and this will be referred onto Hounslow Borough which may lead to a penalty notice for the period of absence.
Students with poor attendance, and/or poor levels of punctuality, will not be eligible for the same level of reward and recognition as those whose attendance and punctuality are in line with school expectation.
Students with poor attendance and/or punctuality may not be allowed to:
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Represent the school in any sporting events
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Participate in school productions
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Attend any school visits or trips that are not a compulsory part of the school curriculum
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Participate in student leadership opportunities
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Attend the Year 11 Prom
Students with poor attendance and/or punctuality should expect:
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Regular communication with parents regarding their attendance
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Be placed on the Chiswick School Attendance Tracker and Strategy Meetings
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Removal of privileges such as lunch times
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Bespoke interventions to support in raising attendance in line with Chiswick School's
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Be subject to an attendance contract
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Be subject to prosecution through the Hounslow Borough SASO process
At Chiswick School we monitor all absences. Early intervention is a significant factor in limiting student absence and ultimately improving student attendance. We ensure that a rigorous attendance monitoring and family support system works in partnership with our parents in their statutory duty of ensuring their children attend school regularly. This system will add an additional layer of support before the punitive Fixed Penalty Notice pathway directed by the Department for Education and the Local Authority.
Chiswick School will implement our intervention strategy to support pupils and their families so that they do not become “Persistent Absentees”, percentage attendance of less than 90%, or “Severe Absentees”, percentage attendance of less than 50%.
Our attendance monitoring system implements a 4 tiered process of intervention as outlined below:
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Tier 1 Concern of Persistent Absenteeism (5 - 9 ½ days absent) |
Tier 2 Risk of Persistent Absenteeism (10 - 13 ½ days absent) |
Tier 3 Severe Risk Persistent Absenteeism (14 - 18 days absent) |
Tier 4 Confirmed Persistent/ risk of Severe Absenteeism (18 ½ + days absent) |
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Fixed Penalty Notices are only issued by the Hounslow Local Authority. This ensures consistent and equitable application of policy, protects school-home relationships and allows alignment with other enforcement sanctions and statutory interventions.
Fixed Penalty Notices will only be issued for offences where the Local Authority is willing and able to prosecute following a NTI (Notice to Improve) attendance contract.
The Local Authority will ensure that the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices will be closely monitored to ensure that recipients pay the relevant fine. In instances where the penalty is not paid within the appropriate period, the Local Authority will prosecute.