Attendance & Punctuality

Cardinal Newman School recognises the strong link between attainment and attendance and the important role parents play in ensuring that it is as high as possible.

 

A student’s progress is severely hampered if he/she does not regularly attend school. To illustrate:

• 90% attendance is an average of one day out of school per fortnight over a school year.

• 90% attendance over 5 years at secondary school is half a school year missed.

• 80% attendance over 5 years at secondary school is the same as one whole school year missed.

   

Cardinal Newman: Attendance Definitions
98-100%	Excellent
96-98%	Very Good – At School Target
Below 96%	Room for Improvement
Below 94%	Cause for Concern
Below 90%	Serious Cause for Concern – Categorised as Persistently Absence from school

 

Punctuality and Lateness:

Registration time is 8.40am and 12.30pm. Lates are recorded at the school gate from 8.40am. Students arriving after 8.40am will receive a break time (8.40am-8.50am) or a lunch time (8.50am-9.00am) detention the same day. Students arriving via student reception after 9.00am will be recorded as late and a negative point will be awarded. The student will also be issued an after-school detention of 30 minutes. Students arriving at school after 10.00am will be issued a U code which is ‘late after registration’ mark. This is equivalent to an unauthorised absence for the session. 

Students who are persistently late for school will have a meeting with the Head of year to help identify any issues which need to be addressed. Persistently late for school equates to being late on 5 or more occasions in any half term, they then may go onto punctuality report. 

The intention is that a strict line on punctuality will lead to improved attendance in the long term.

 

Promoting Good Attendance and Punctuality:

Our policy is to place more emphasis on rewards rather than sanctions although we recognise that in a minority of cases effective sanctions are necessary. We will encourage good attendance by:

• following-up absence on the first day wherever possible (via text/phone call)
• undertaking attendance checks at appropriate times
• recording good attendance on students’ records, e.g. school report
• acknowledging individual’s improvements in attendance
• providing feedback on individual attendance data to students and, where necessary, parents
• encouraging informal liaison between the school, EWO and other agencies wherever possible
• welcoming and supporting children returning to school after a long term absence and, where necessary, provide support via our Pastoral Team
• reward attendance for individual students on a half termly basis 
• encouraging improvement
• collecting weekly data on attendance for the whole school and by year group and making this available to governors and to parents

Rewarding good attendance & Punctuality

Rewarding good attendance and punctuality is important. The ultimate reward for attending school every day and being on time is that the student will have the best possible chance of achieving their potential. However we will also reward all students who have received 100% punctuality and/or 100% attendance with ASPIRE points each half term.

On top of this, all students who 100% attendance and/or 100% punctuality will receive HOY raffle tickets for a Half Termly draw of prizes. This is in addition to the whole school attendance draw at the end of each Term.

Levels of Intervention

We offer varying levels of support for students within Cardinal Newman. The following categories are as follows:

Wave 1            Tutor Intervention                    93-96% attendance

Wave 2            HOY Intervention                    90-93% attendance

Wave 3            Attendance Office                  < 90% attendance