Attendance & Punctuality

Every day matters

Being in school, every day and on time, gives young people the very best opportunity to learn, achieve and belong.

Good attendance is about much more than being present for lessons. Regular attendance helps students to keep pace with their learning, establish positive routines, maintain friendships, participate fully in school life and feel connected to their school community.

When absence becomes frequent, the impact can accumulate quickly. Students can miss important learning, find it more difficult to understand what comes next and lose some of the continuity and routine that help them to thrive at school.

For these reasons, we have high expectations for attendance and punctuality and strive for 100% attendance for all students.

Encouraging regular school attendance is one of the most powerful ways you can prepare your child for success – both in school and in life. When you make school attendance a priority, you help your child to develop healthy life habits and social skills, feel more connected with the school community, avoid risk-taking and anti-social behaviour and reach their academic potential.

Children who frequently miss school often fall behind. There is a strong link between good school attendance and achieving good results. For example, only 12% of students with below 80% school attendance achieve five or more GCSEs at a ‘good pass’ or above (grades 4-9) including English and Mathematics, compared to 68% for students with attendance greater than 95%.

The table below details the number of days and lessons of invaluable learning missed over a year with attendance at different levels.

Working together

Excellent attendance is a shared responsibility between school, students and families.

We recognise that there will, of course, be occasions when a young person is genuinely too unwell to attend school or when other circumstances make absence unavoidable. Equally, where attendance begins to become a concern, we believe the best approach is for school and home to work together.

The Hayfield School will promote and recognise good attendance, investigate unexplained or unjustified absence and work closely with families where attendance is causing concern. We will also support students returning to school following a prolonged period of absence.

If you are worried about your child’s attendance, we encourage you to contact their Head of Year so that we can talk about the circumstances and consider how we can work together.

Achieving excellent attendance is a collective effort. School, students and families each have an important part to play, with clear responsibilities that help ensure every young person is in school, on time and able to benefit fully from their education.

The School's role

We will:

Promote good attendance and punctuality and will investigate any unexplained and/or unjustified absence.
Work closely with parents/carers where student’s absence is cause for concern. Should you have a concern about your child’s attendance, please contact their Year Group Leader to talk through how we can work together.
Support students to achieve good attendance and punctuality.
Support students returning to school after prolonged absence.

The student's role

They must:

A Hayfield School student must:

Attend regularly and on time.
Be punctual to all lessons.
Ensure that they register for all timetabled lessons and inform the Attendance Office (School/Reception) where appropriate if they are not able to be registered.
Ensure all messages and notes from parents/carers are taken to the appropriate place.

The family's role

You should:

Ensure your child attends the school on those days it is open, dressed in full uniform and equipped to learn.
Ensure your child attends every day The Hayfield School is open unless they are too ill to do so.
Avoid keeping your child away from The Hayfield School for any reason other than illness or other authorised explanation (see below).
Avoid arranging holidays during term time.
Immediately inform the School Attendance Office if your child is unable to attend (by 8.25 am where possible), including the reason for the absence and expected date of return.
Parents should also confirm in writing on their child’s return the reason for their absence. If no indication of a return date has been given, parents/carers should contact The Hayfield School on each day of absence.

Punctuality

Students are expected to be on site for 08:35 am in time for registration at 08:40 am.

Lack of punctuality affects learning and behaviour not only of the student who is late, but it has an impact on all other learners as the teacher is required to recap on missed learning for those who arrive late. Punctuality is also a key workplace skill which must be learnt at school and adhered to.

The Hayfield School gate closes at 8.35am and students arriving after this time are deemed to be late and should sign in at Reception giving their reason for being late.