Attendance
At Swindon Academy, we expect all students to attend regularly to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Regular school attendance and educational attainment are inextricably linked.
We recognise that regular attendance at school is essential for good learning and continual progress and ensures that students get the best possible outcomes from their period in compulsory education. All school staff will work with students and their families to ensure each student attends school regularly and punctually.
We expect all of our students to aspire to 100% attendance and appreciate the full support of parents and carers in encouraging this. The minimum level of attendance for this school is 96%; we keep parents updated regularly about progress to this level. The school has targets to improve attendance and your child has an important part to play in meeting these targets.
Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility and allowing your child to be absent from school without a good reason creates an offence in law and may result in prosecution. Failing to attend this school on a regular basis will be considered as a safeguarding matter. Only the school, within the context of the law, can approve absence. Parents cannot approve absence.
Parents do not have the right to take their child out of school during term time for holidays, and the academy does not have to authorise such absences. Taking holidays in term time will affect your child’s schooling as much as any other absence and we expect parents to help us by not taking children away in school time. There is no automatic entitlement to time off in school time for holidays.
Any period of leave taken without the agreement of the school, or in excess of that agreed, will be classed as unauthorised and will attract sanctions such as a Penalty Notice.
A full version of our attendance policy can be found here.
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