The Attendance Team

As a dedicated team, we are committed to working in partnership with families to support student attendance and overall wellbeing throughout their secondary school journey.

We believe in open communication, consistent pastoral care, proactively removing obstacles to foster regular attendance ensuring every student feels safe, valued and supported.

Through strong partnerships with families, targeted interventions, and compassionate pastoral care, our vision is to raise overall attendance above 92%. Our aim is to ensure all our students can reach their full potential, not only throughout their time at Breckland School but also as confident, capable individuals prepared for life beyond the classroom.

Moments matter, attendance counts

Regular school attendance is key to your child’s success—both academically and emotionally. Every minute in school counts—when your child arrives on time, they’re not just learning, they’re building habits that shape their future.

Attendance is important for more than just attainment – regular school attendance impacts positively on peer relationships improving mental health and wellbeing.

We are here to support families ensuring that each child thrives whilst at Breckland School.

When we take registers

We take registers to ensure every child is safe.

The school gate opens at 8:00am where all students are greeted by our friendly members of staff from both the pastoral and senior teams. Your child is expected to attend Breckland School every day and on time. All students should be with their mentor by 8:15am when the register opens. Once the morning registration has closed at 8:45am, will we mark your child as absent (U code). This will negatively impact on your child’s overall attendance as the morning mark has been missed.

Our second registration session is taken at 12:15pm and is kept open until 12:45pm. All students are expected to arrive promptly to lessons avoiding being marked as late (L code).

Attendance Support and Guidance

1: Our attendance policy

2: Parent Guide – Working Together to Improve Attendance

3: Suffolk County Council Attendance Guidance

Our Expectations

Where a child is registered at a school the parents are legally responsible for ensuring they attend school every day that they are able to.

If your child is unable to attend:

Contact the school on 01842 819501 before 08:20am stating your child’s name and the reason for their absence. This should be completed every morning your child is absent.

The NHS website has excellent support and guidance of when a child should be kept off school. You can find this here: Is my child too ill for school?

Medical Appointments

Routine medical or dental appointments should be made outside of school hours where possible. In the event of an appointment within school hours, the Attendance Team will request to see evidence of the appointment and you should send your child into school wherever possible either side of the appointment.

Holidays during term time

The law does not grant families the automatic right to take a child out of school during term time for any reason, including a holiday. Only in very, very exceptional circumstances will absence requests be authorised.

Any family wishing to request a leave of absence should complete and return the form below to the school office at least 2 weeks before the first day of the intended absence.

Leave of Absence Request

Unauthorised leave of absence including holidays in term time may result in a penalty notice being issued.

Fixed Penalty Notice

There are occasions when we may have to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN).

A penalty notice must be considered by all schools in England following 10 sessions (usually equivalent to 5 school days) of unauthorised absence within a rolling 10 school week period. These sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of a combination of any type of unauthorised absence. The 10-school week period can span different terms or school years.

The first time a Penalty Notice is issued for unauthorised absence the amount will be: £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days. Reduced to £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days.

Suffolk County Council have excellent resources for support and guidance which you can find here: School Penalty Notices

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