Reporting Student Absence

We expect all student absences to be reported through a phone call to school by 8.40am. To reach the school’s absence line please phone Trinity Academy on 0117 450 9379 and then dial option 1. Student absences should not be reported via an email to the school.

Punctuality to School

Term time leave of absence

• Current legislation does not allow any absence due to holiday during term time unless there are extenuating circumstances when it will be at the discretion of the Head or Deputy Head Teacher.
• Any parent wishing to request leave of absence in extenuating circumstances will need to apply in writing to the Headteacher. Please email any request to enquiries@trinityacademybristol.org. Requesting a leave of absence does not mean that the absence will be automatically authorised. Parent/Carer should submit the Absence request forms as soon as leave is anticipated; and wherever possible, at least four weeks before the absence.
• If a parent/guardian takes a student out of school on holiday during term time and that absence is unauthorised for 8 or more continuous sessions, the school will request a Penalty Notice be issued by the local authority.

What the attendance percentages actually mean

I think we would all feel pretty pleased with ourselves if we scored 90% in a test. However, 90% attendance means your child misses 114 lessons each year. Over the course of your child’s five years at Trinity, that adds up to 570 lessons, that’s a significant amount of learning missed.

Attendance during one school year	Number of days missed	Number of lessons missed
95%	9 days	54 lessons
90%	19 days	114 lessons
85%	28 days	168 lessons
80%	37 days	222 lessons
75%	47 days	282 lessons
70%	56 days	336 lessons
65%	65 days	390 lessons

 

Importance of good attendance

In order to give your child the best chance in life, they need to achieve a good set of GCSE results. The table below shows the impact of poor attendance on likely GCSE outcomes, the lower your child’s attendance, the less chance they have of passing 5 GCSEs.

At a minimum, your child will need to achieve 5 GCSEs Grade 9-4 to progress to Post 16 otherwise they may end up having to re-take some qualifications, in particular English and Maths GCSE.

Number of days missed per year	Percentage of students who achieve 5 GCSEs Grade 9-4
0 days missed	78%
10 days missed	63%
20 days missed	52%
30 days missed	40%
40 days missed	30%

 

Here is what we will do at Trinity to help your child attend well:

We Celebrate Good Attendance at Trinity

• Weekly celebration of individual students with the best attendance by tutors every Friday
• Weekly celebration of tutor groups with the best attendance in assembly
• Termly letters to parents from your Head of Year to acknowledge excellent attendance
• Termly Celebration Assemblies with celebration breakfast for best attending tutor group
• Termly ‘Always Club’ celebration for students with no sanctions and 100% attendance

We work with your child to help them have excellent attendance

Attendance Clinics with tutors

• Tutors run regular attendance clinics with students whose attendance is lower than expected to help work out why the student isn’t attending school
• During attendance clinics, the tutor and the student will create an action plan to improve attendance, including how they will celebrate the improvement

The role of the Pastoral team

• The Heads of Year and Pastoral Support Leads run escalated attendance clinics for students whose attendance remains low.
• Parents/ carers would be invited into school to create an Individual Attendance Plan with the Head of year or Pastoral Support Lead if attendance isn’t improving.

Our Attendance Officer

• Will send termly letters notifying parents of their child’s attendance
• Will make regular phone calls home and conduct home visits, where necessary, to engage families in improving attendance

We also work with Bristol City Council where attendance remains a significant concern, to ensure that we get additional professional support to improve attendance where necessary.

How can you help your child improve their attendance?

• Illness - Does your child often say they feel unwell first thing in the morning?

Students should only be missing school if they are really unwell and would not be able to get out of bed at any point during the day. For colds, headaches, sore throats, tummy ache etc students should get up and dressed in their uniform, have breakfast and try to come to school. When we are ill, we often feel at our worst in the morning. It is always much better to go into school and see how you go.

• Tiredness - Is your child getting enough good quality sleep?

Ask your child:

How many hours of sleep do you get? Is it good quality sleep?

Do you feel rested, restored, and energised when you wake up in the morning?

The Sleep Foundation
This is a really useful website to read through together if your child isn’t getting enough sleep, especially towards the bottom of the page ‘ how to improve your sleep quality’ - at home you could agree to put in place 3 of these actions as a family to support better sleep.

• Do you think your child is avoiding school for some reason?

Below are some questions you can ask your child to try and work out what the problem might be:

Are there any subjects where you feel really behind?

Are there any lessons that you really don’t look forward to? Why is this? How can I help?

Which teachers do you have good relationships with?

How do you find breaktime/ lunchtime? (food/ friends/ activity etc)

Are there any friendship issues/ concerns about interactions with other students in your classes?

If you could change one thing about your time in school that would make you more likely to go to school every day, what would it be?

You can contact the school in the following ways to tell us about any concerns you have/ your child has and we will work with you to try and resolve them.

• Email us enquiries@trinityacademybristol.org, we will forward your email to your child’s tutor.
• Report your concerns using our PASS button on the website https://www.trinityacademybristol.org/heart/parent-support/ 
• Pop in to see us during SLT surgery where you can meet with a member of the Senior Leadership team to talk through your concerns every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 8:30am and 9:30am.