Explore our school
Parents & Carers
Quick Links
Statutory
Students
Sixth Form
Community
Absence reporting and attendance expectations
If your child is absent for any reason please ring school each day to notify us (unless you have stated a specific number of days). If your child is absent due to illness, please report their absence here.
We require daily calls to ensure your child is safe.
Please ring the Attendance Line (0113) 2878913 or dial the School number (0113) 2878900 and press 1.
Please find our attendance policy at the bottom of this page.
At Brigshaw High School, we place a large emphasis on students developing resilience and integrity by maintaining exceptional attendance. Maintaining 100% attendance means that your child does not miss any vital learning experiences. At Brigshaw High School, the attendance target is 96%.
To achieve their best, students must be on time and in school on a school day unless there is a valid reason. This includes being on time for registration and going straight to their lessons and being punctual throughout their school day. As you will be aware, there has always been a clear correlation between excellent attendance and outcomes. By being in school and on time to all lessons, we can ensure students have the best opportunity for success.
Why attendance matters
Regular attendance at school is vital to help your child achieve and get the best possible start in life. Good attendance is central to students’ academic achievement and personal development.
Research shows that going to school is directly linked to improved exam performance which should in turn lead to further learning opportunities and better job prospects. As well as this, attending school regularly helps to develop:
- friendships
- social skills
- team values
- life skills
- cultural awareness
- career pathways
90% of persistent non-attenders do not achieve five or more good grades of GCSE and around one third achieve no GCSEs at all
Young people who regularly miss school without good reason are also more likely to become isolated from their friends, to underachieve in examinations and/or become involved in anti-social behaviour.
The Attendance Team
The attendance team will support you and your child to ensure they are meeting the school’s expectation of 96% and they will work together, with your support, to achieve the best possible outcome.
Appointments and term time holidays
Appointments
We ask that a child's routine medical and other appointments are made out of school time, where possible.
We understand that this is not always possible though and we ask that we are notified in advance. This can be done by telephone or email and we ask that all parents and carers provide an appointment letter/ card to confirm the appointment.
Where possible, the child should attend School before the appointment and return to lessons afterwards.
Term time holidays
The Government changed the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations in relation to term time holidays on 1st September 2013.
As a result, Head Teachers can no longer allow any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. This means that holidays in term time will not be authorised and will be marked as an unauthorised absence in the school register.
Unauthorised absences may result in a Penalty Notice being issued under the provisions of the Education Act 1996 (as amended) which means that you could be fined for your child’s absence.
Note: Payment of a Penalty Notice (from September 2013), if paid within 21 days, is £60 per parent/carer, per child. If you do not pay within 21 days the fine is increased to £120 and you have a further 7 days to make this payment in full.
Non-payment of a Penalty Notice within the total 28-day period could result in the commencement of criminal proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court under Section 444 of the Education Act 1996.
The issuing of Penalty Notices relates to any unauthorised absence. Authorisation of absence is at the Head Teacher’s discretion and if your child is absent for any reason such as illness, you may be required to provide school with evidence of the absence such as a medical appointment card or prescription. Information on penalty notices is also available on the Leeds City Council and DFE websites.
If you are experiencing any difficulties that are affecting your child’s attendance, the school and the Cluster want to work with you to support you. Please contact the school in the first instance.
To request a leave of absence for your child, please complete a copy of this form for each child.
Persistent absence
The Education Act 1999 requires parents and carers ensure their child receives full-time education. For those attending school, parents and carers must ensure that their child attends regularly. There is an expectation that all parents inform the school of absence; any unexplained absence will be followed up with a phone-call or a home visit.
Persistent Absence is a serious problem for children, as much of the work children miss when they are off school is never made up, leaving them at a considerable disadvantage. A child will be defined as a 'Persistent Absentee' if they miss 10% or more of school.
A child's attendance is monitored closely, and we will follow up unexplained absences with parents or carers. Where a child's attendance record reaches a concerning level, we will contact the child's parents or carers to discuss ways in which we can support all parties to help improve the child's attendance.
If the school has not been able to make contact with a child or parent for a period of 10 consecutive days, it must be reported by the Attendance Officer and Assistant Head Teacher to the Local Authority.
School support
At Brigshaw High School we are committed to supporting our students with improving their attendance. Each student will have access to a Form Tutor who will speak to their Tutor Group weekly about the importance of attendance and help all students set targets to improve or maintain their positive attendance. Each student will be placed in a School House and will have a dedicated House Leader and House Officer who are available to support students when they are in school.
Students who need further support with meeting our attendance expectations will be placed on an Attendance Contract with a member of the Attendance Team. This allows the student an opportunity to discuss and understand the barriers to their attendance, whilst also allowing the Attendance Team to offer further bespoke support to the student over a four week monitoring period.
