Attendance and Holidays

The Ferrers School follows the Meridian Trust policy for Attendance. Which can be read here Policies – Meridian Trust

Poor attendance and poor punctuality seriously affect the progress of students in school.  Research shows that if students miss 17 days a year, they can drop one GCSE grade.  The Ferrers School welcomes the support of parents in ensuring that students attend school regularly and on time.  

Students who arrive late to school must sign in at reception.  Late arrival can be very disruptive to learning and students who arrive late will be placed in detention.

Follow this link to our Meridian Trust Attendance and Support Information for Parents

Reporting absence

Please contact your child’s House office before 9.00 am on the first day of absence.

Brunel 01933 354910

Franklin 01933 354911

Turing 01933 354912

Woolf 01933 354913

There is a voicemail for out of office hours.  Please give your child’s name, form and reason for their absence.  A letter of explanation is required when your child returns.

Absence during term time

The Academy Council are fully committed to supporting the School to raise standards of achievement and there is a strong relationship between good attendance and educational achievement.  A 10 day holiday will result in the loss of 50 hours of learning time, which can have a serious impact on progress. Good attendance is 96% and above; it is our aim for all students to strive for 100% attendance in order to have the best chance of success.

We ask parents to support us in this aim.

The Department for Education has amended the regulations and guidance in relation to absences in term time.  There is no automatic right to take your child out of school during term time.

From 1st September 2013, the Department of Education will only allow a Principal to grant a leave of absence if there are exceptional circumstances.  In determining whether or not an absence in such circumstances can be authorised, it is for the Principal to determine the number of days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.

Therefore, in the case of unauthorised absence, our Education Welfare Officer will be notified and a Penalty Notice could be issued.  Please note that Penalty Notices are issued to each parent for each child taken out of school.  A Penalty Notice is a fine of £60 which increases to £120 if not paid within the first 21 days.  If the Penalty Notice remains unpaid, this will result in further legal intervention.

All absence requests must be completed on the Term Time Absence Request form, letters will not be accepted.  This should be returned to the school a minimum of 14 days before the start of the absence.

Any absence from school will disrupt your child’s learning.  You may consider some absences to be educational but your child will still miss out on the teaching that their classmates will receive.  Children returning from an absence are unprepared for the lessons which build on the teaching they have missed.  Teachers then have to give more time to help individual children catch up on missed work.  This poses a potential risk of the underachievement of other students in the class.  This is something we all have a responsibility to avoid.