InspireU - attendance and punctuality policy

Expectations regarding attendance and punctuality

InspireU expects:

  • 100% attendance and punctuality at all timetabled sessions. This includes work placements and other appointments organised byus
  • learners to communicate with us and any employers offering work experience if they are:
    • unable to attend
    • going to be late for any reason
  • learners to communicate unforeseen absences, such as, illness before 8.45am
  • learners to give a good reason for all absences, backed up with evidence, for example:
    • fit note
    • letter from GP
    • college tutor
    • CAHMS
    • hospital appointments.
  • learners to make appointments outside of college timetable, including work experience
  • learners to make dental, doctor, optician appointments outside of their timetabled sessions, including work experience. Where this is not possible, they should inform us with at least a week's notice and have evidence of the appointment
  • learners can take up to five days annual leave during their planned programme time. These are in addition to the planned shutdown days during December, April and August months. Learners are required to complete an authorised absence form and return it centre two weeks before.  Annual leave should be agreed with the provision manager, and in the absence of the provision manager, a member of the leadership team

Any learner who does not achieve 85% attendance, and who is unable to provide a full justification, may be withdrawn from their programme.  

Promoting punctuality and good attendance

  • staff members should start lessons on time as stated on the timetable
  • a learner who arrives later than 10 minutes after the advertised start time should be marked as late
  • all learners who arrive late must be spoken to discretely and allow their reason for lateness to be given privately, not in front of the whole class. Triage may be required before a learner enters the learning environment
  • latecomers should not be allowed to interrupt the class and the staff should, if possible, avoid reiterating what they have missed if it disrupts the lesson for others. Staff may allow latecomers to catch up at a convenient point and distribute missed learning materials
  • staff should engage the latecomer in the session as quickly as possible
  • punctuality will be encouraged by staff to support skills and for life and work
  • persistent lateness will be recorded on the learner's event log and addressed with the learner concerned within a one-to-one meeting using our conduct procedure if necessary