Attendance

“Pupils with no absence are 2.2 times more likely to achieve 5+ GCSE grades 4-9 or equivalent including English and Mathematics than pupils that missed 15-20% of their lessons”

This section outlines how to report an absence, inform us of an unavoidable medical appointment, request leave for your child as well as to inform you of our morning punctuality expectations.

Bingley Grammar School aims to ensure that all its students access a full-time education which meets their needs and allows all to realise their potential. As such we expect all students to aim for 100% attendance, with a 97%+ target!  Whilst understandably children can get poorly and may need to be off school, it is vital this is not the case for minor illnesses and students return as soon as they are well enough to without delay. The school maintains the highest expectations for its students and we ask that parents support us with this by ensuring their child is in school every day and on time ready to learn.

Appointments

Wherever possible can medical/dental and other appointments be arranged out of school hours. Proof will need to be provided and these should rarely take a full day. Please send your child to school before the appointment, sign out and return to school after their appointment.

Medical

The School has a full time workplace first aider on site. If a student is unwell, parents will be contacted to collect their child from school. In more serious cases, or where an injury requires further investigation, the first aider will ask parents to take the child to hospital. In an emergency, the first aider will send directly for an ambulance and contact parents immediately.

Request for leave

The school will not authorise a child to take a holiday/leave of absence during term time and parents do not have the legal right to take children out of school for this.

Parents/carers are strongly urged not to take students out of school for holidays during term time as there is no entitlement for them to be taken out of school for such a reason. Any holidays are expected to be taken as part of the 176 days available outside term time.

Any requests for leave under exceptional circumstances must be made by completing a form (available from Student Reception) at least 3 weeks in advance of the proposed absence.

We cannot grant a leave of absence retrospectively. If a parent does not apply in advance, leave of absence will not be granted.

Only school can authorise an absence. Parents who take their children out of school during the school term without the Headteacher’s authorisation or beyond an agreed date, risk being issued with a Penalty Fine or being prosecuted.

Lateness

The School gates close at 8.30 am.

Any student arriving after this time should go to student reception and register before going to their form time. Students who are late to school, more than once after 8.30am are issued with a Friday Attendance detention that finishes at 4.15pm. If a child is late due to extenuating circumstances, we expect parents/carers to make contact with school to explain the reason why as otherwise the detention will still stand.