At Bramhall High School, we believe excellent attendance and punctuality are vital in helping students achieve their best. Students should be at school, on time and ready to learn, every day the school is open, unless the reason for absence is absolutely unavoidable; all research shows that students who attend well achieve well.

Arrival

All students are expected to be in school at 8:25am in good time for registration at 8:30am. Any student arriving after this time is marked late with ‘L’ in the register; those arriving after morning registers have closed, are marked with ‘U’- unauthorised absence for the morning session.

Unavoidable medical appointments

Medical appointments should be made outside of school hours. Where an appointment during school hours is absolutely unavoidable, it should be made around the morning and afternoon registration periods (08:30–09:00 and 14:00-14:15). Your child should attend school for morning registration, sign out at main reception for the appointment, and return to school in time for afternoon registration. Please ensure we have advance warning of appointments so your child can be signed our promptly at reception:  

attendance@bramhallhigh.stockport.sch.uk

Illness

If your child is absent through illness, please inform our Attendance Office via EMAIL only: attendance@bramhallhigh.stockport.sch.uk before the start of the school day; failing to inform us results in absence being recorded with ‘O’ – unauthorised absence for both the AM and PM registration periods.  Where attendance remains poor, you may be informed that absences will no longer be authorised without medical evidence being produced. 

Holiday in term time

School can only authorise leave of absence if satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist. Permission will not be given for the purpose of a holiday in term time.  If your child goes on holiday in term time without permission, attendance will be recorded as ‘G’ – unauthorised absence for all AM/PM registration sessions within the period of holiday, and an Education Penalty Notice fine of £60 per parent may be issued to you by the Local Authority.  

Enforcement Referrals for poor attendance 

Where a pupil has poor attendance, we will try to work with you to address any underlying issues and improve your child’s attendance.  In some cases, where attendance does not improve, an enforcement referral will be made to the Local Authority and the Local Authority may take legal action against you.  This could include: 

• Education Penalty Notices.  These are fixed penalty notices which can be issued if your child has further unauthorised absences in the 15 school days after a formal warning has been issued to you.  
• Prosecution.  You may be prosecuted in the magistrate’s court if your child’s attendance does not improve after the Education Welfare Service has attempted to work with you (normally by drawing up a Parent Contract) to improve attendance.