Late arrival to the academy:

We take punctuality, and the opportunity to learn, very seriously. Being late means missing learning time and disturbing the learning of others. If a student arrives late, they need to follow this procedure: 

• Sign in at reception
• Get a late docket
• Go to lesson, give the docket to the teacher

We expect students to be in their mentor room by 8:25am. 

Late arrival to lessons:

If a pupil is late arriving for a lesson, the following procedure will apply:

• If a student has 3 lates, they will receive a punctuality detention.
• If a student is late to lesson after the bell on 5 occasions, they will receive a punctuality detention. 
• If a student arrives to a lesson 10 minutes late or more, with no note/valid reason, this will be classed as truancy and a truancy detention will be given. 

If they wake up and are too poorly to come for school please observe the following:-

• Email attendance@tbowa.org or phone in before 08:30am on 01202 512697, option 1.
• You can also report child absences directly via SIMs Parent App, our parent communication app. This will enable you to also include evidential attachments such as medical letters.

When your child returns to the Academy, after being off, you will only need to provide a note if you have not contacted the Academy the day before. Remember to use the Absence Slips in your child’s planner.

• If a routine medical appointment is required e.g. dental check-ups, these should be made at the end of the school day, or in the 13 weeks of school holiday.
• If they are visiting an orthodontist, emergency doctor or emergency dental appoint­ment
  • we do not expect them to take the whole day off.
• If they need to leave the Academy for an appointment during the day, you must
  • write a note in their planner using the absence slips provided or contact the
• Attendance Officer on the Attendance Line.

Regular school attendance is essential for all of our students to make good progress, achieve their academic potential and consequently have better chances in life. Every student at TBOWA, in line with the Government's expectations, is expected to maintain an attendance level of 97% and above. It is the responsibility of everyone in our school community – parents, students, staff and governors to ensure they achieve this. Therefore, we monitor and review the attendance of all students constantly. Each year there are 190 school days, which leaves 175 days for holidays, shopping, birthday treats and non-urgent medical and dental appointments. Therefore, the school is very unlikely to authorise an absence for these reasons. Our whole school attendance target is 97%. Therefore, if your son or daughter attends at least 97% of one school year, they will have had less than 10 days absent.

If a student had:

•  98% attendance = less than 4 days absent from learning
•  95% attendance = less than 10 days absent from learning
•  90% attendance = 4 weeks absent from learning
• 85% attendance = 5 ½ weeks absent from learning
• 80% attendance = 7 ½ weeks absent from learning

• If a student had:

• 90% attendance = half a year of lost learning!
• 80% attendance = 38 weeks off school = one whole school year of lost learning!

We appreciate that children are unwell from time to time and that there can be exceptional circumstances for absences, but we ask that you think carefully about keeping your child out of school. There is a strong connection between attendance and achievement at school. Absence is proven to have a significant negative impact upon a child’s educational attainment. In addition, regular school attendance keeps children safe, whereas evidence shows that pupils who truant are more likely to be involved in crime and anti-social activity.

We hope that you appreciate how crucial good school attendance is to your child’s progress, achievement and chances in life and we look forward to working with you to ensure that your child’s attendance is the very best it can be to give them the very best chances in school and after it.