ATTENDANCE & PUNCTUALITY EXPECTATIONS
Times of the School Day
| School Starts | School Finishes | ||
| Key Stage 2 |
Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 |
8.55 a.m. | 3.20 p.m. |
| Key Stage 1 |
Year 2 Year 1 Reception |
9.00 a.m. | 3.15 p.m. |
| Early Years Foundation Stage | Morning Session | Afternoon Session | |
| Nursery | 8.45-11.45 a.m. | 12.30 - 3.30 p.m. | |
| All children must be collected promptly at the end of the school day. Children in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 must be collected by an adult that is known to the child’s class teacher. | |||
OUR EXPECTATIONS
a) THE ACADEMY'S PUNCTUALITY EXPECTATION
Punctuality is vital to effective learning and the academy’s safeguarding procedures.The academy requires every pupil to attend punctually on every school day. This means arriving early and allowing time for mishaps in the morning not to affect punctual arrival at school. It is the parent's responsibility to ensure that their child(ren) have completed their homework and get organised for school in good time the night before. Parents must also ensure their children go to bed and actually sleep for at least 8 hours on school nights. Distractions such as computers and mobile devices should not be used in bedrooms when children should be sleeping. Lateness and / or non-attendance are extremely damaging to students’ progress and disruptive to the progress of others. They can also be indicators of wider pastoral concerns outside school (such as family issues, poor parenting, medical problems, or involvement in criminality) and inside school (anxieties about, for example, bullying or poor ATL). Our procedures and processes are designed to proactively and deeply delve into possible issues at home, at school or elsewhere, which may be related to lateness or non-attendance. External agencies (e.g. Social Care, the Police, CAMHS) or Internal agents (e.g. Safeguarding Staff) may be involved and / or referrals made for intervention. Punctuality is particularly important to a return to normal learning and to the academy's safeguarding protocols. It is not treated as a trivial matter and will be subject to robust challenge The academy's decision, on whether a reason for absence is accepted and authorised or not, is final. |
b) 100% ATTENDANCE IS THE EXPECTATION
Regular school attendance is legally compulsory for every day the academy is open to its students (See Term Dates)The academy’s expectation is for 100% attendance. There are no special Covid related exemptions 100% attendance also means arriving in good time (early) for the start of the academy day. The academy maintains high standards and expectations, including of punctuality and attendance for academic, logistical, social and safeguarding reasons. Attendance and punctuality enforcement will be strictly applied, with reasonableness and sensitivity where appropriate Students with mild covid symptoms (e.g. sore thoat, runny nose, etc) can attend school as normal. Students with mild covid symptoms do not need to isolate at home. Young people who feel very unwell or have a high temperature (for whatever reason) should follow the normal absence procedures. There are no longer any specific Covid procedures to follow. The academy is careful not to become complicit in unauthorised absence and will always refuse the possibility of beamed learning when a child should be in school. The academy will not normally offer beamed learning to students who are too unwell to attend school. |
|
Students must come to school every day and aim to have 100% attendance. 100% attendance is essential to guarantee the highest possible achievement. It is really important that students come to school on time every day. Lateness and attendance below 100% will have a negative impact on their studies and examination results. Regular attendance at school enables children to make the best of the educational opportunities available to them. Holidays in term time are NOT allowed. The school is closed for 13 weeks each year and holidays must only be taken during this time. Any absence in term time will be rigorously followed up by the attendance officers. The Education Welfare Service, the Police and Social Careworks closely with the school to monitor student attendance and intervene when there are problems. Parents/carers must make sure their children attend school regularly. They have a legal responsibility to ensure they do so. If parents/carers allow their children to stay away from school without good reason they may be prosecuted. Home visits will be scheduled and targets will be set if necessary to improve students’ attendance at school. Absence ProceduresIf a student is absent, parents or carers must contact the school by 9 a.m on the first day of absence and give the reason for the absence. On the third day of absence the parent/carer should contact the school again to discuss the absence further. On their return to school the student should bring a letter from their parent/carers to explain the absence. A medical letter or certificate will be required for absences longer than 3 days. Only a hospital appointment or a visit to the orthodontist will be authorised (evidence will be required). All routine medical and dental appointments should be made after school hours. The school telephone number is: 020 8570 5700
Safeguarding: Student non-attendance is also monitored as a potential indicator of safeguarding issues in the home or elsewhere outside of the academy. These might include neglect, abuse, forced marriage, radicalisation, bullying, FGM, involvement with drug or gangs, mental health issues, suicide risk, malnutrition, etc. This safeguarding responsibility (and duty of care to its students) is taken very seriously.
Parents/carers are asked therefore to be understanding when the academy or local authority investigates non-attendance and to avoid being defensive to our staff who are looking out for those children who may be in need of help. The academy has a zero tolerance approach to aggression towards its staff and will prosecute where necessary. The academy may consider whether such unacceptable behaviour is an attempt to distract or conceal a safeguarding problem from the authorities. In some circumstances, academy staff may ask to wear body cameras when making home visits (see the academy's privacy statement for compliance with GDPR). AUTHORISED ABSENCE: Only some essential or serious hospital appointments and visits to the orthodontist (not dentist) will be authorised. Evidence will be required before authorisation will be considered. Otherwise, the Headteacher has only very limited discretion to authorise absence in truly exceptional circumstances so it would be very rare for any other absence reason to be able to be authorised. All routine medical and dental appointments should be made after school hours, on teacher training days, at weekends or in academy holidays. Families with children in more than one school/academy: Whilst Berkeley liaises with other schools (maintained and academies), it is inevitable that there will be some differences between institutions in patterns of opening, term dates and start and finish times. It is the obligation on parents/carers with children to ensure that they check the school dates and times for all their children before making commitments and booking holidays. Berkeley Academy is an independent school and will not accept claims that other schools have agreed to absence or authorised absence for other family members. No school or headteacher should be authorising or condoning absence during term time, in their school or in any other school, as parents are legally bound to send their child to school adhering to the published dates for each school/academy. Ms Mahi is the academy's Senior Attendance & Welfare Officer. She oversees the monitoring of student attendance and ensures appropriate follow-up for students who do not attend school regularly and punctually, including organising home visits, fines, prosecutions and the involvement of other agencies such as social care and the police. |
ABSENCE & LATENESS: A EARLY SAFEGUARDING INDICATORAt Berkeley, lateness and non-attendance are treated very seriously, and may trigger our safeguarding antennae and procedures. Lateness is scrutinised daily by a designated senior member of staff. Lateness data, absence data and any patterns are scrutinised regularly and, in some cases, investigated forensically by the Designated Safeguarding Lead or other staff. Any individual absence or pattern of lateness (or absence) which raises alarm bells, is unexplained, is suspicious, or does not seem credible will be subject to investigation and risk assessment. The academy will also consider whether such absence(s) may be related to organised exploitation (e.g. for gangs or criminal or child sexual exploitation). Lateness and non-attendance may be subject to formal risk assessment because they can, for example, be potential indicators of family involvement in crime, gangs, domestic violence, bullying and/or being at risk of exploitation, or it can be an indicator of neglect by the parents. In such cases, the academy will report and work with other agencies to address the issues. These proactive and preventative measures are an important safeguard so that the academy can remain a place of safety and learning. Preventative measures are necessary to reduce the likelihood of ever having to implement measures retrospectively. All lateness may, however, also trigger a concern which will be recorded on the academy's safeguarding system; CPOMS which is an online system which being trialled in 2022-2023 and will be fully adopted from 1 September 2023. CPOMS to help the academy to spot suspicious patterns of lateness or non-attendance. |
c) UNIFORM / DRESS CODE , APPEARANCE & HYGIENE
Berkeley Academy is an academy with unform and dress code requirement as policy. These requirements are reasonable, cost effective published, gender neutral, reviewed regularly and made known to all applicants and potential applicants prior to applications.
The 'CONTACT US' tab on the website offers a perpetual mechanism for all year-round policy consultation contributions. The ATB will consider all pertinent contributions received in the preceding year / period when it reviews any policy.
Full uniform compliance is a reasonable condition of entry. Students must attend the academy in compliance with the uniform and dress code expectations.
A parent will normally be required to take their child home to acquire and don the correct uniform, purchasing the correct items if necessary, and to return as soon as compliance has been achieved. They will be admitted without undue delay once compliance has been achieved.
The period of absence necessary to comply will be recorded should be kept to the absolute minimum. It will be recorded as unauthorised absence and a sanction or other disciplinary measures may be applied depending on the circumstances, for uniform irregularity if appropriate and additionally for any other breaches of the Pupil Behaviour and Discipline Policy. Pupils and parents are expected to accept challenge for non-compliance with politeness of tone, good manners, respect for authority and courteous goodwill.
