Attendance is crucial for academic success, and we encourage all students to aim for 100% attendance. Missing school costs valuable learning time—over five hours for just seven lessons—and can hinder your child's potential. The Elms Academy prioritizes full attendance for these reasons.
Absences are unauthorized if:
Students with attendance below 90% will be referred to the Education Welfare Service, and parents may face legal action.
If your child misses registration, they must sign in at Student Services.
Any requests for planned absences should be submitted in writing to the Principal, who will consider them based on your child's attendance record. We strongly discourage term-time holidays, as they negatively impact learning and future opportunities.
Absences disrupt academic progress, create stress when catching up, and can coincide with critical assessment periods, limiting teacher availability for all students. We ask for your support in achieving an attendance rate of over 96%.
The Elms Academy places a high priority on the safety of all students. As such we take steps to ensure that all students are accounted for throughout the day. All of our staff take individual registers for all subject lessons throughout the day. This means that in addition to the main morning Registration Period, there are seven other times throughout the day when your child will be registered. We will regularly monitor and track student’s patterns of attendance and punctuality via this system. We will notify you if we have any concerns regarding your child’s record of attendance or punctuality to lessons.
All students should be in school by 8:20am. Lateness to school is unacceptable as it disrupts the learning of the late child and their classmates.
If your child is late, they will sit a 1-hour detention the same day. If your child is regularly late in the morning, parents/carers will be asked to come into the Academy to attend a punctuality review meeting. It is also imperative that students arrive to all lessons on time throughout the day. If your child arrives to lesson after the bell, they will sit a 1-hour detention the same day. Punctuality to lessons is a safeguarding matter as students must not be unaccounted for in the building.