Attendance

Attendance and Punctuality 2023-2024

Letters and information in relation to attendanceFAST-track and Leave in Term Time Letter - Updated September 2023 - PLEASE READAttendance Policy

Our Strategic approach to Attendance

How important is it for you to ensure your child attends school?

• Making sure your child attends school is one of the most important things you can do to help them achieve their target grades.
• Your child should have an attendance of 97% or above.  Do you know what their attendance is at the moment?
• There is a direct link between attendance and achievement. Year on year, our Year 11 students with attendance of 97% and above achieve far better grades than other students in the year.

Legal Action:

Please note that all students’ attendance is continuously monitored over a twelve month period for eligibility to be actioned by Birmingham City Council on their prosecution programme:  Fast Track Attendance.

Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states that as a Parent/carer of a child of statutory school age, you have a legal responsibility to ensure their full time education through regular attendance at school or otherwise.

Here at the Academy, we run successful campaigns alongside the Prosecuting Team.  This is shown in positive results for attendance and academic achievement, especially with some students who are attending for their final year before seeking a college placement.

Following on is the letter sent out to all students at the beginning of the school year in September. This clearly explains the guidelines around taking your children out of the Academy for Leave of Absence during Term Time. It also states the impact that missing out on education has for your child and the repercussions unauthorised absence has for parents when fined and given criminal records by the courts.

Please see below for information regarding legal actions taken during the last Academic Year 2022-2023:

Results of parents fined in relation to both Leave in term time and the Local Authority Fast Track attendance programme, are shown below:

Leave in Term time: 

293 Parents fined £60, Payments totalling £17,580.  

26 Parents fined £120, Payments totalling £3,120. 

31 Parents fined in Court (Higher level prosecution) Payments Totalling: £12,074

Fast track Attendance: 

22 Parents fined £60= £1,320.   

7 Parents fined £120= £840. 

15 Parents fined in Court (Higher level prosecution) Payments Totalling: £8,984

At Washwood Heath Academy we monitor students’ attendance daily and report weekly on attendance and punctuality to pastoral teams working with your child.  Birmingham’s Education Legal Intervention Team work alongside the Academy to ensure good attendance. If your child’s attendance is of a concern you will be notified. Your child/ren will be asked to participate in a strategy to try and raise attendance levels. If attendance fails to improve you may be invited in for meetings to discuss how best we support your child in attending School. If all school attendance support strategies fail to improve attendance your child will be referred to the Local Authority for action on their attendance Fast Track.