Supporting students
Attendance
Attendance VISION
Horizon Community college is committed to ensuring that all our students are school ready, work ready and life ready.
All students need to attend school. We believe high attendance plays an important part in the safeguarding of our children.
We closely monitor the attendance of our pupils and identify any attendance concerns. Early intervention strategies are in place to resolve attendance issues as soon as they arise. We are aware that absences may indicate a problem at school, home or both and act promptly to minimise impact on learning.
Attendance is directly linked to progress with learning. Students are required to attend school for 190 days each year. If students do not attend school every day, they are compromising their education and potential achievement.
Our goal is for every student at Horizon Community College to achieve 100% attendance.
Attendance
MEET THE TEAM
Miss Khan
Strategic Lead for Attendance
Mrs Morley
Senior Attendance Officer (Year 7)
Miss Tonks
Attendance Officer (Year 10, Year 11)
Miss Sherriff
Attendance Officer (Year 8, Year 9)
School Team - Attendance Leads
Mr Middleton
Assistant Principal – Lower school (Year 7 / Year 8) Attendance Lead
Mrs Hirst
Attendance PP Lead /Upper school (Year 9 / Year 10 / Year 11 Attendance Lead
Guidance
Attendance
Attendance on a school day is compulsory. If you are not in school then you must have a justifiable reason for absence. Parents/Carers should inform the school absence line on the first day of absence via telephone and every day there after.
If your child is going to be absent for an appointment we would ask that proof of the appointment is brought into school well in advance (whenever possible). However, we would prefer that all appointments are made outside of the child’s timetable.
Parents are requested not to arrange family holidays during term time. Requests for leave of absence should be submitted on a leave of absence form that is available within school on request and should be completed well in advance.
Punctuality To College
Punctuality is an important part of self-discipline and is essential to good time management.
If you arrive late to college, you must sign in at the student reception desk, you will be marked late.
If you arrive over an hour late for college, you shall be given a significantly late detention which has duration of 1hr, this will be recorded as a U code and affects your attendance.
Punctuality To Lessons
Punctuality to lessons is essential for academic progress, minutes missed in a lesson result in missed learning.
Students who are late to lesson, without a valid reason, will be awarded a Late (L) mark for that period.
Each time a student reaches 2 Lates to lesson this will result in a 30-minute late detention.
Leave of Absence in Term Time
- The Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003) provides the Local Authority, Schools and Academies the power to issue penalty notice fines for unauthorised leave of absence in term time.
- No parent can demand leave of absence as a right.
- Any request for leave of absence must be made in advance.
- The request for leave of absence should be made by the parent /carer “with whom the child normally resides”. If this is the parent /carer who is not taking the child out of school / academy, the full name and address of the parent /carer who is taking the child out of school/academy must be provided on the form.
- There is no requirement to authorise just because a request has been made. The amendments under The Education (Pupil Registration) ( England) Regulations 2006 make it clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances*. *See Code of Conduct /Guidance relating to Leave of Absence
- The circumstances of each individual request for leave of absence will be taken into account on a case by case basis.
- The decision to approve / not approve the request is for the school / academy, not the Authority or the parent. Only schools/ academies can authorise / not authorise absence.
- If important work has been missed by the pupil due to the parents making a request for leave of absence the parents should not expect special arrangements to be made by the school/ academy for that pupil to catch up that work.
If you go ahead with the leave of absence when unauthorised, you may receive a Penalty Notice issued by the Local Authority. This penalty will be £60 per child if paid within 21days; payment after this time but within 28 days is £120
Failure to pay a fixed Penalty Notice will render you liable to criminal proceedings in the Magistrates Court under Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996.
If you need to request a leave of absence please fill in the form and e-mail to attendance@horizoncc.co.uk
REWARDS
Attendance reward Chart
Every week you have 100% attendance your form tutor will give you a sticker to add to your reward chart. Every time you collect 5 stickers you win a prize; prizes can be collected on a Tuesday and Wednesday breaktime in the heart space.
Attendance Pin Badge Winners
Well done to the Y7 students who achieved 100% in term 1, they have been awarded with a bronze attendance pin badge to wear on their blazer with pride. Students will also have the chance to be awarded with silver and gold attendance pin badges as the academic year continues.
9 Days of Christmas 2022
100% ATTENDANCE WINNERS
Congratulations to all the students who have managed to achieve 100% attendance this academic year (this does not include any confirmed COVID absences.) Well done to all the students that have achieved this, we are super proud of you. As well as a letter and a £10 amazon gift card, a certificate will be posted to your home address over the Summer holidays.
Y11 In it to win it
Any Y11 student who attended school every day between May3rd – May16th was entered into the prize drawer to win one of five Google Chromebooks! Congratulation to our winners, what a fantastic prize, an excellent revision resource in the lead up to your exams!
Easter ATTENDANCE WINNERS 2022
Any student that attended school every day between 28th March and 8th April were entered into the prize drawer. Prizes available were five Google Chromebooks and give Easter eggs per year group. Well done to all winners.
Christmas Attendance Winners 2021
Students that were in school every day between Monday 6th December – Thursday 16th December were entered into a prize drawer. Prizes available were five Google Chromebooks and one pair of wireless headphones per year group!
Frequently asked questions
Yes for confirmed COVID, otherwise students will not be allowed access to online lessons, however staff do upload their lesson resources to TEAMS for all students to access.
Your child must be in school to secure a present mark, even if an absence is authorised it will still affect your child’s attendance
Absence in which evidence has been provided, even though the absence is authorised this will affect your child’s attendance
Contact the school each morning with the reason for absence or provide a note from the GP with the days of absence
Your child has arrived over an hour late to college without a reason, this is classed as an absence and will affect your child’s attendance.
Form period is part of the school day and therefore it is compulsory.
The school’s target for each student is 100%.
Any child who has less than 90% attendance to college is classed as persistently absence.
This would be an unauthorised absence and a member of staff may visit your home address to complete a safe and well check.
Messages are sent for either of the following reasons:
Your child has not arrived to college
Your child has not registered for their allocated provision.
No holiday requests during term time will be authorised, therefore if you choose to do so you may be liable for a fixed penalty notice.
