Attendance

Please contact the Attendance Team or your child’s Head of Year.

• Ms. T. Ingram (Lead Attendance Manager)
• Mr C. Mike & Miss A Broadhurst (Attendance Officers)
• Mrs S Dodds (Head of Year 7)
• Ms I Irwin (Head of Year 8)
• Ms. M Baxter (Head of Year 9)
• Ms. D Banton (Head of Year 10)
• Ms J Osbourne (Head of Year 11) 

EMAIL: attendance@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk

Attendance Line: 0161 882 1182

Alternative Attendance Line: 0161 882 1150 *please press Option 1

The following steps may be taken:

• Pre-Warn Letter: This will be sent out if we see frequent and/or irregular patterns of absence. This is our way of alerting you to the fact that your child’s attendance is starting to become a concern. We may stop authorising your child’s absence without medical evidence.
• Home Visit: Attendance staff, Mentors or Heads of Year will visit pupils at home when there is a concern for a child’s attendance, or if no contact has been made to state why the child is absent from school. These visits can be unannounced.
• Attendance Panel: You and your child may be invited to an Attendance Panel, to discuss reasons for absence, the impact of poor attendance on attainment and ways to move forward and support your child to improving their attendance and attainment.
• Penalty Warning Letter: This will be sent out when a child has unauthorised absences. Once this letter has been sent, absences cannot be authorised without a doctor’s note to state that your child is unfit for school. If your child is absent for a medical appointment we require the letter or appointment card in order to authorise this absence.
• Early Help Assessment (EHA): We may offer to support your child’s attendance by putting a EHA into place, this allows us to draw in other agency support should we need it.
• Penalty Notice/Prosecution: If your child’s attendance does not improve following any or all of the above interventions, the Local Authority may choose to issue parents with a Penalty Notice or prosecute for their children’s non-attendance at school. 

What happens when pupils are late?

• Students sign in at Late Gate with Attendance staff or student services, hey are given a 30 minute detention, if two or more occasions within a week.
• Persistent lateness will be followed up by the Pastoral Staff and the Attendance Team.
• Students may also be invited to attend a Punctuality Panel.

Arrivals after 9:00am

Students arriving after this time are given a 'L' mark on the register. A ‘U’ mark is an unauthorised absence for the morning period which occurs after 9.30am

For repeated late arrivals parents could receive a Penalty Warning Letter or a Penalty Notice from the Local Authority.

Please contact the Attendance Team or your child’s Head of Year if you are concerned about your child’s punctuality.

A number of parents have contacted us recently concerned that their child’s attendance at medical appointments has a negative impact on their attendance. Even when a pupil’s absence is authorised, this is still an absence and must be recorded as such.

Where it is possible, we ask that non-urgent appointments are made out of school hours. If a pupil has a morning appointment they should attend school as soon as possible and receive their afternoon mark. If a pupil has a mid-morning appointment, they should come into school for registration, sign out in time for their appointment and then come back for the rest of the school day. Unavoidable afternoon appointments should be made for after 2pm where possible.

Appointment cards or letters should be shown to the school for all medical appointments.

If you have any questions/concerns about medical appointments, please contact the Attendance Team or you child’s Head of Year.

The Department for Education regulations state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. If exceptional circumstances arise you must take the following steps:

• Apply in writing as soon as possible to the Headteacher, stating the reason for absence and the duration of leave requested.
• Must be done in advance of the Leave of Absence.

If leave of absence is denied and you take your child/children out of school, the absence will be unauthorised. This may result in the following legal action being taken against you -

Under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 an authorised officer of the City Council has the power to issue each parent/carer with a Penalty Notice for each of their children who fail to attend school regularly.

Penalty Notices issued for unauthorised absences on or after 1st September 2013 incur a fine of £120 to be paid within 28 days, which is reduced to £60 if paid within 21 day of the notice being served. Failure to pay a Penalty Notice may result in a prosecution.

It is widely recognised that the educational outcomes and future life chances of children and young people can be significantly impacted upon by periods of absence. We thank you for supporting us in ensuring that your son/daughter attends school, on time, every day.

Over recent months there have been a number of occasions when we have received absence requests in relation to students taking part in action in respect of climate change. As a Rights Respecting School, we are fully supportive of the rights of young people to have their voice heard and we have worked hard to support the passion our students have to play an integral part in the demand for change without the need for them to be absent from school. 

As part of our duty of care we are unable to allow any student to leave our school premises without a signed letter of consent from parents. We are bound by guidance from the Department for Education and the Director of Education for Manchester City Council regarding such events, which states that the Council does not support involvement in rallies during school time, due to the associated safeguarding and health and safety risks. They also make it clear that if students are absent to attend such an event then this would be deemed as unauthorised.

Our Attendance Policy can be read and downloaded below:

Chorlton High School Attendance Policy

Further guidance about absence can be found below:

Manchester City Council School Attendance Information