Term dates and the importance of good attendance
Term dates and the importance of good attendance
As we start a brand-new year, we wanted to remind parents/carers and students about the importance of good attendance.
To give you advance notice of when the school holidays are, on our website have published the term dates for both the 2025/26 and 2026/27 academic years. You should use these when planning your holiday breaks and only take holiday during the school holidays. We also endeavour to publish the term dates for subsequent academic years as far in advance as possible.
- Visit www.gilesacademy.co.uk/term-dates for details of the term dates and school holidays.
We place great importance on good attendance as it has a significant impact on wellbeing and academic success. Students who miss between 10% and 20% of school (19-38 days per year) have only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% for those who miss fewer than 5% of school days. While 90% attendance may sound acceptable, it can still negatively affect progress.
Not only will it affect student grades, it has been proven to affect future earnings. For each additional day of absence missed from school, the typical student could miss out on future lifetime earnings. If students get into a pattern of being persistently absent at school, this continues into employment and will affect how likely they are to be employed or progress in work.
As you should be already aware, unauthorised absences from school could incur a fine that could end up in court appearances.
These fines are imposed by the local authority and not by the school, but the school are legally required to report these as part of the National Framework for Penalty Notices as the school is also monitored on student attendance.
If there is a pattern of unauthorised absences, the safeguarding team in school can also be made aware and this may result in further investigation by the relevant services even though you may have only tried to save money by taking a holiday during term time.
There may be instances where the school will approve absences during term time so you should always speak to the school BEFORE taking your child out of school.
If for any reason, you are concerned about your child’s attendance, then you can always speak to your child’s Pastoral Year Lead.