Attendance and Punctuality - Edinburgh’s Trinity Academy

The link between attainment, achievement, attendance and health and wellbeing is well proven in establishing a positive ethos in schools. We are committed to working with the whole school community to ensure all our pupils attend school regularly.

Aims and Targets

To improve attendance and punctuality rates for all year groups, aiming for 95%+ attendance
To support persistent absenteeism and those struggling to attend school
To clarify roles and responsibilities of staff in monitoring and tracking attendance and punctuality of pupils
To make certain that attendance is a priority for pupils, parents and staff to ensure that all pupils are successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors
Ensure accurate recording of pupils’ attendance and absence in accordance with Scottish Government guidance

Trinity Academy Attendance Policy and Procedures

Rights, Roles and Responsibilities

Accurate and timely recording of attendance and absence is a key responsibility of all staff in school.

These procedures aim to ensure a high level of safe-guarding and will help to identify pupils who are absent from classes throughout the school day, allowing appropriate action to be taken at the earliest opportunity.

Parents/Carers

As part of the school’s safeguarding procedures, parents/carers are asked to contact the school via the school Absence Line (Tel 478 5050 option 1) if their child is going to be absent, giving a reason for this absence.

If a parent/carer has not advised the school that their child will be absent then it is assumed they are unaware of the absence and that their child is missing or truanting. This is recorded as unauthorised until an explanation is received.

Family Holidays during Term Time

The majority of family holidays taken during term time are categorised as Unauthorised Absence (G).

However, it is acceptable under exceptional circumstances, and provided the parent/carer has made a written request to the Head Teacher, for schools to authorise a family holiday of not more than two weeks duration, during term time. Such circumstances are coded as (E) and only include:

Constraints to parental annual leave due to the nature of employment of one or both parents eg. military, police.
A family holiday judged to be important to the wellbeing and cohesion of the family, following serious or terminal illness, bereavement or other traumatic events.

Care Experienced Children and Young people

Promoting the attendance of care experienced children and young people is a local authority priority. We have a system for tracking the attendance of care experienced learners. This includes a monthly update to any allocated social worker along with a summary of achievements.

Children Missing from Education

The Education Welfare Service will support schools to investigate unexplained absences. This is likely to include;

making contact with those named in Emergency contact details held in the school
enquiries with known friends or family
enquiries with neighbours
where appropriate enquiries with social work and housing

In all instances, if a pupil has been absent for four consecutive weeks and, despite vigorous checks by school and the Education Welfare Service, it has not been possible to trace the family, a referral will be made to Children Missing from Education (CME) in order to continue the search for the missing pupil on a national level.