Attendance

Reporting An Absence

0161 241 9930 - 'Option 1'attendance@chssouth.org.uk If your child is absent, we ask you to telephone the school before 8:30am.

Is my child too ill to go to school?

Please click here to read guidance from the NHS on whether your child should attend school.

Attendance Team

Miss L McGuinness - Attendance Officer

Miss N Mohamed – Attendance Officer

Mrs M Ryder - Attendance Officer

Miss E Shale – Assistant Headteacher with Attendance overview

At CHS South we firmly believe that regular school attendance is essential for the educational progress and overall wellbeing of our pupils. We want all pupils to strive for 100% attendance, however, we understand that some pupils may face additional challenges that impact their attendance. Our school's attendance team is here to provide support and guidance to pupils and families in such situations. If you encounter any difficulties related to attendance or punctuality to school, please do contact us straight away for support.

If we are concerned about attendance we will be in regular communication via phone, email, face to face meetings or home visits. We appreciate the challenges parents can face and feel that working together with families is the best option for positive outcomes for our students.

Our Attendance Policy can be found on our 'Policies' page.

CHS South follows the Manchester Local Authority Attendance Strategy to improve attendance.

If there is something we need to know regarding your child’s health which may impact on their attendance, please speak to the attendance team. We ask you to make every attempt to book non-urgent medical appointments after school or during the school holidays. Students with unavoidable medical and dental appointments during the school day are asked to bring in the appointment card to sign out of school at the appropriate time.

If we are concerned about a child’s attendance the following steps may be taken:

Communication through letters: We shall write to you if we are concerned about frequent and/or irregular patterns of absence. This is to alert you to the fact that your child’s attendance is becoming a concern and to encourage school and parents to work together to see improvements. Please ensure that you are providing medical evidence when appropriate.

Home Visit: Attendance and Safeguarding staff will regularly undertake home visits to support our students and families. These visits can be at any point during an absence and are often unannounced. We appreciate your co-operation in reporting absences via our school’s procedure (above) and your understanding that home visits support our safeguarding procedures.

Early Help Assessment (EHA): We may offer to support your child’s attendance by putting an EHA into place, this allows us to draw in multi-agency support to help support your child.

Fixed-Penalty Notice: Please note that Manchester City Council will issue a fine (known as a fixed-penalty notice) if you take an unauthorised holiday in term time or have met the national threshold of 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. If issued with one, you will need to pay this directly to the local authority – £80 per parent per child within 21 days, or £160 within 28 days. Failure to pay a Penalty Notice may result in a prosecution.

We urge all parents to please arrange holidays to take place in school holidays. There are 177 non-term days available for personal commitments.

Punctuality

What happens when students are late?

Students sign in at reception or with Attendance staff and they are given a behaviour point and may be given a same day conversation.
Persistent lateness will be followed up by the Pastoral staff and the Attendance Team.
Students may also be invited to attend a Punctuality Panel.
For repeated late arrivals parents could receive a Penalty Warning Letter or a Penalty Notice from the Local Authority. Please contact the attendance team if you have concerns.

Impact of medical appointments on attendance

While authorised absences for medical reasons are permissible, they are still recorded as absences. To minimise disruption to your child's education, we request that non-urgent medical appointments be scheduled outside of school hours whenever possible.

For morning appointments, students should attend school as soon as they can afterward to ensure they are marked present for the afternoon session. If an appointment is scheduled for mid-morning, students are encouraged to attend school for registration at 8.30am, sign out for the appointment, and return to school afterward to complete the school day. For unavoidable afternoon appointments, please aim to schedule them after 2:00pm.

Please present appointment cards or letters to the school for all medical appointments to ensure proper documentation. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding attendance and medical appointments, please contact the Attendance Team or your child’s Pastoral Leader.

Leave of absence

The Department for Education regulations state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

If exceptional circumstances arise you must take the following steps:

Apply in writing as soon as possible to the Headteacher or member of the Attendance team, stating the reason for absence and the duration of leave requested.
The Headteacher or member of the Attendance team will respond in writing to your request.
This must be done in advance of the leave of absence.
If the leave of absence is denied and you take your child/children out of school, the absence will be unauthorised. This may result in the following legal action being taken against you - under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 an authorised officer of the City Council has the power to issue each parent/carer with a Fixed-Penalty Notice for each of their children who fail to attend school regularly.
Fixed-Penalty Notices issued for unauthorised absences on or after 19th August 2024 incur a fine of £160 to be paid within 28 days, which is reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days of the notice being served. Failure to pay a Penalty Notice may result in a prosecution.