The Attendance Team

Ms M Layland

Attendance Support Leader - Email: attendance@trinityacademybristol.org

Mrs C Lee

Family Liaison Officer - Email: clee@trinityacademybristol.org

Mr J Fan

EBSA Pastorial Support Lead - Email: jfan@trinityacademybristol.org

Reporting Student Absence

All student absences MUST be reported by no later than 8:30am. This can be done either by email to: attendance@trinityacademybristol.org or by calling 0117 450 9379 and then dial option 1 to be transferred through to our attendance team.  Please note that the phone lines are open from 8:00am - 4:15pm.

Punctuality to School

Our pupils must arrive by 8:30am on each school day, for morning roll call.

Students arriving after 8:30am will be issued with one late to school behaviour point.

Our morning registers close at 9am. Any child who arrives after registration closes is marked as U (unauthorised absence) in the register for the morning session, this counts as a half day absence on your child's record.

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 Assistant Head Teacher.
• Any parent wishing to request a leave of absence in extenuating circumstances will need to apply through this Absence request form. Please email any questions to attendance@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%

 

We Celebrate Good Attendance at Trinity

 

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 Family Support team

• 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 coming 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 here. 
• 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.

Penalty Notices and Formal Attendance Processes

As a parent, you have a legal responsibility to make sure your child or young person gets a full-time education. If your child or young person is absent and their absence is marked as unauthorised, you may get an Education Penalty Notice.

Education Penalty Notices are given when a pupil has 10 or more unauthorised absences (5 days) within the last 10-week period. For example, if your child or person:

• Has an unauthorised holiday where you have taken your child on holiday during term time without authorisation from the school (coded as G)
• Regularly arrives late for school after the register has closed (coded as U)
• Has odd days off which have not been authorised by the school (coded as O)

In most cases, you will receive a warning that you may get an Education Penalty Notice. This warning is sometimes called a 'Notice to Improve' warning letter. If a child or young person has taken a holiday in term time without letting the school know in advance, a warning may not always be given.

For more information on Penalty Notices for lack of school attendance, please see THIS page on the council's website.