Attendance

Reporting your childs absence

If your child is absent please email: [email protected] before 9am or call 0191 917 9888 and select option 1 for attendance.

If the absence is due to a medical appointment please provide confirmation of this. We will accept a letter, an email, a screenshot of a text, etc. Where possible, we request that you make appointments out of school hours. 

If your child is off school for more than one day, even if it is due to the same illness or injury, please make sure you contact us every morning.

Attendance Expectations

We expect students to have above 95% attendance throughout the academic year. Regular attendance means attending school every day, arriving at school on time and attending every lesson. Failing to attend school regularly can have a major impact on children's education, their future and their life chances. The authorisation of absences is at the discretion of the Principal in all circumstances. Children with less than 90% attendance are considered persistent absentees, even if the reason for absence is authorised.

Children are legally required to attend school and parents/guardians are responsible for ensuring this attendance. You can find the latest Government guidance here.

• An attendance record of 90% might seem good but is equal to 1 day missing per fortnight. If this continues from year 7 to 11, a total of six month's education will be lost.
• An attendance record of 80% might seem acceptable but is equal to 1 day missed per week. If this continues from year 7 to 11, a total of one year's education will be lost.
• There is strong evidence that there is a link between attendance and academic outcomes.

Punctuality is important both for school and preparing students for the world of work. Students should be in school  before 9am each day. Any student arriving to their form class after 9am will be marked as late. Due to recent changes from the Government, if students arrive after the register has closed (9:50am at the UTC) it will be classed as an unauthorised absence for the morning session. 

We provide a free breakfast club for all students from 8:30am - 9:00am.

We will always try to work with parents and students to improve poor attendance, but parents can be fined for irregular attendance - this means that your child has had 10 sessions of unauthorised absence over a period of 10 weeks (each full day off school counts as 2 sessions - am and pm).

Find our Attendance Policy here. 

Illness

Is your child too poorly for school? Below is advice from the NHS to help you decide...

If you are unsure about a child's wellbeing, please talk to your local pharmicist, call the NHS helpline on 111, or contact your GP.

• High Temperature - Keep your child at home until the temperature goes away.
• Feeling anxious or worried - Bring your child to school and speak with a member of staff.
• Coughs and Colds - With no temperature, send your child to school
• Vomitting and Diarrhoea - Keep your child at home for 48 hours after the last episode.

For details about other illnesses, visit the NHS website here:  Is my child too ill for school?

In cases of student illness or injury, we will only authorise a small number of absences without proof of illness from a medical professional (doctor, dentist, counsellor, or other). If your child has multiple absences due to illness or injury, please make sure that you seek medical support to authorise these absences. 
Students are able to make an appointment with the school nurses to discuss any medical issues and there are also weekly drop in sessions. 

Term Time Holidays
We do not approve term time holidays without exceptional circumstances for missing education. 
If you take your child out of school for a term time holiday without authorisation, you may be subject to a fine or other legal action by the Local Authority. 

If you are looking to seek approval for a term time holiday, please fill in our Planned Absence Request Form which you can find a link to at the top of this page.