Attendance

If your child misses school on a regular basis, they are damaging their future life choices. Nationally, it has been proven that children with poor attendance in primary school miss out on making the expected progress in vital literacy and numeracy skills, and find it difficult to catch up. In secondary school, 19 days’ absence correlates, on average, to a grade at GCSE in all subjects.

Dixons Broadgreen Academy recognises that there are occasions when your child will be absent from school for unavoidable reasons. We have a dedicated Attendance Team who will offer support for families experiencing such absences.

Support will be tailored to the nature of the absence and the needs of the individual or family. Examples of our support are shown below -

All students

• Provide appropriate support and challenge to establish good attendance
• Carry out robust first-day calling procedures
• Undertake home visits to engage families and ensure children are safe
• Identify and, where possible, mitigate potential barriers to good attendance in liaison with families and relevant support agencies
• Implement punctuality routines
• Implement children missing education (CME) procedures when appropriate
• Ensure that parents fully understand the demands and responsibilities of elective home education (EHE)

Students at risk of persistent absence (94% attendance below)

• Initiate and oversee absence procedures. This could include -

• Letters home
• Attendance support plans
• Engagement with local authorities and other external agencies and partners
• Work with families and the community to identify which methods of communication work best, recognising potential barriers in hard to reach families and find methods that work and are understood
• Consideration if further interventions are required in line with the statutory guidance on parental responsibility measures
• Provide regular reports/caseloads to local authority attendance team or independent attendance organisations

Students who are persistently absent (90% attendance and below)

• Develop and implement persistent absence action plans with students and families which address barriers and help establish positive attendance routines
• Identify tailored intervention which meets the needs of the pupil, for example -
  • Mentoring
  • Careers advice and guidance input
  • Alternative provision where appropriate
• Lead daily or weekly check-ins to review progress and impact of support
• Make regular contact with families to discuss progress
• Hold regular meetings or reviews of caseload with the local authority attendance team, external partners and alternative providers
• Liaise with school leaders (designated safeguarding, special educational needs coordinator and pastoral leads) on referrals to external agencies and multi-agency assessments
• Work in partnership with local authority attendance team and other agencies to ensure the appropriate use of statutory parental responsibility measures

Severely Absent Student (50% Attendance and below)

• Cooperate and agree a joint approach for all severely absent pupils with the local authority.

• Proactively use data to identify students with, or at risk of, low attendance and develop strategies to support them.

• Work with other schools in the local area and the local authority to share effective practice where there are common barriers to attendance.

Term Time Holidays

We do not authorise term time holidays because of the impact they have on students' attainment. All unauthorised term time holidays will be referred to the educational welfare service for issue of a fixed penalty notice. This constitutes a fine per parent per child. Failure to discharge (pay) the penalty notice will automatically proceed to a prosecution via the local authority legal team.

Meet the Team

Our attendance team can be contacted via email attendance@dixonsba.com or by calling 0151 228 6800.

Year 7, 8 and 9 Attendance Officer - Mrs L Coates & Ms S Eyo

Year 10-11 Attendance Officer - Ms J Quinn & Ms V Chalkley

Year 12 -13 Attendance Officer - Ms K Silverlock

Punctuality Attendance Officer - Ms A Moore