Early Closure: A reminder that The Portsmouth Academy will be closing at 12:20pm on Wednesday 2 October to allow staff time to prepare for Open Evening. Students who receive free school meals should spend their allowance at morning break. Please make arrangements for your child to return home safely on this date.
On Thursday 3rd October, school will start at the normal time of 8:30am.
Regular attendance is extremely important for student achievement, it is also a legal requirement. In line with the expectations of the world of work, we place a high value on punctuality, which should become a habit for life. We have two Attendance Improvement Officers to monitor attendance and punctuality.
Fostering good attendance is a shared responsibility between us and yourselves and we do ask for your support with regard to this. Your child’s attendance figures will form part of your child’s Record of Achievement. Employers and colleges always ask for information regarding a pupil’s attendance and punctuality.
Good punctuality is expected at all times and we do ask parents to confine routine dental and hospital visits to holidays or after the learning day. At no time will your child be allowed to leave the premises without written permission from you.
What to do if your child is unable to attend:
What to do when your child returns:
We have an electronic system of contacting parents if their child is absent and no reason has been given.
Please note that only the Principal can authorise absence for exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional circumstances would include the following:
For NHS guidance on whether your child is well enough to attend school, please click here.
Should you wish to request leave of absence please ask your child to collect the relevant forms from reception and when completed, return to the Principal.
Truancy or unauthorised absence includes time off for:
We have set an attendance target of 96%.
Your child will also have their own personal attendance target set by their tutor.
All pupils must be on site by 8.30am at the latest.
Failure to provide satisfactory proof of lateness will result in detentions in the first instance, followed by parental interviews, then involvement from the Educational Welfare Officer.
Please note that lateness is classed as truancy and can lead to court action.
All educational establishments are required to publish figures for authorised and unauthorised absences. We are trying to reduce our unauthorised absence by contacting parents each morning if their child fails to attend. We will also send out a copy of your child’s attendance with their annual report as well as discussing it with you at Parents’ Evening.
We liaise closely with our Education Welfare Officer and they will become involved with those families whose children have poor levels of attendance. It may sometimes be necessary to take court action.