Attendance

Maidstone Grammar School is committed to the continuous raising of achievement of all our students.

Good attendance and punctuality are essential for students to be successful and to get the most out of their school experience, including their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances. Poor attendance and punctuality undermine a student’s education, adversely affect progress and can put a student at risk from a safeguarding point of view. As a school our expectation is that students will achieve attendance at 95% or above together with excellent punctuality. Attendance below 90% is classified as persistent absence by the Department for Education.

We track and monitor attendance throughout the year and work with many individual students and their families to overcome barriers to good attendance. We also send updates to parents/carers of children where attendance has dropped below 90% to ask for their support in trying to minimise future absence, which could have a detrimental impact on a child’s progress, attainment and wellbeing. The following table indicates the impact that absences can have on attendance and learning time:

We would be very grateful if parents / carers would support us with the following:

1.    Please report ALL student absence to the Attendance Office by 9am daily (Illness/Medical appointments etc).

2.    Late students must sign in at the Attendance Office from 8.45am.

3.    All students must sign in/out at the Attendance Office for appointments when arriving at or leaving the school site.

4.    Please submit an e-form for all requests for ‘Leave of Absence’, prior to the event, giving as much notice as possible i.e. Weddings/Funerals/Competing in sporting events /University Visits/Interviews/Driving tests: https://forms.office.com/e/RANs8DrFrG

5.    Sixth Form students are required to attend ALL AM/PM Statutory Registrations.

6.    Sixth Form students are not permitted to do driving lessons during the school day.

7.    Sixth Form students need to attend all timetabled Private Studies.

If you have a concern in relation to your child’s attendance then please do contact our Attendance Team at attendance@mgs.kent.sch.uk or call us on 01622 623922 and we will be happy to advise you. Alternatively, you can contact your child’s House Team in relation to any pastoral or welfare matters as follows:

• Barton House: barton@mgs.kent.sch.uk
• College House: college@mgs.kent.sch.uk
• Corpus House: corpus@mgs.kent.sch.uk
• Tonbridge House: tonbridge@mgs.kent.sch.uk

We are grateful to parents and carers for your support in securing good student attendance to school.

The school’s attendance policy can be found here.