Attendance
Is my child too ill for school? - NHS Guidance
Attendance reporting information for parents
The following information is provided to all parents when their child joins the school. It outlines the school’s expectations on attendance, absences, and punctuality, as well as providing details on the timings of the school day.
At Darwen Vale High School all of our pupils must have high level of attendance. It is clear that for pupils to reach their full potential they should rarely miss a day at school. Attendance is also a safeguarding matter and poor attendance may be an indicator that a pupil’s welfare is at risk.
We are also here to support parents and carers to perform their legal duty in ensuring that their children of compulsory school age attend school regularly and on time. To do this we ask that parents and carers adhere to the following protocols:
Punctuality
Arriving to school on time is important so as to allow all pupils to have a settled start to the day. Arriving late to school can often be disruptive to the pupil, as well as their teacher and their peers. Below are the timings of the school day:
Arriving at school
On arrival pupils should assemble at the following areas:
Year 7 – Peace Garden
Year 8 – Amphitheatre - Darwen side
Year 9 – Stem Garden - Roadside
Year 10 - Amphitheatre - Blackburn side
Year 11 - Stem Garden - School side
Lateness
Pupils and students are late to school if they arrive after 8.30am. If a pupil is late to school they will receive a late registration mark, and the following process will need to be followed:
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All pupils must sign in at the Attendance Office.
Once they have signed in they will then either be escorted to class, or asked to make their own way there.
If a pupil is late due to them attending an appointment, evidence of this should be provided at least 24 hours in advance of the appointment. If this is not possible, then the pupil or student should bring the appointment letter or card with them and hand this into the Attendance Office.
We encourage parents and carers to make medical and dental appointments out of school hours where possible. Where this is not possible, the pupil should be out of school for the minimum amount of time necessary. Where there are siblings who also attend the school, parent/carers must ensure that their other child/ren attend school on time on the morning of the appointment.
Absence
Parents and carers must notify the school on the first day of an unplanned absence – for example, if your child is unable to attend due to ill health – and this must be done in the following way:
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Parent/carer must contact school by 8.00am on the first day of absence. This should be done through the Reporting Student Absent tab on the homepage of the school website.
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Parent/carer is to provide details for the reasons for their child’s absence.
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Parent/carer will need to contact school every day via the Reporting Student Absence tab for the duration of their child's absence.
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Upon the pupil’s return to school, parent/carer will provide the school with any relevant medical evidence for the absence.
End of the school day
The school day ends at 3.00pm and the expectation is that pupils leave the site by the nearest exit.