المدرسة البريطانية للتسويق الدولي

STUDENT ATTENDANCE POLICY

BSMI takes the issue of attendance and timekeeping very seriously and students sign a Student Learning Agreement to indicate that they understand and agree with the College’s Student Attendance Policy. Students are provided with a timetable on their first day of arrival so that they have a written reminder of the times and location of their lessons.

Morning lessons start at 9.00am and afternoon lessons start at 1.30pm unless otherwise advised. Lessons for academic courses start at 2.00pm. If students are more than 10 minutes late for their lessons, they must inform the College of the reasons for their non-attendance by texting or calling the College on the number given to them on their first day in College. If the student is under 18, the details will be logged on the Under 18s Absence/Lateness Form, together with any follow up action taken by the College. The College will also attempt to contact any under-18s who do not phone and do not arrive for lessons after 30 minutes. The details are logged on the Under 18s Absence/Lateness Form.

Under-18s will be admitted to lessons if they arrive late. However, the class teacher has discretion to refuse adult students entry to a class if they are more than 10 minutes late and to ask latecomers to come back after the break if their late arrival will cause disruption to the learning of the other students in the class. Students will be marked ‘late’ or ‘absent’ in the register accordingly.

The College will only issue students with a certificate at the end of their course if they have achieved a minimum attendance of 80% for the duration of their course. This is included in the Student Learning Agreement and also included in the Student Progress and Attainment Policy. The College’s policy about lateness and the minimum attendance needed to receive a certificate is also mentioned during the Student Induction Presentation.

If students do not attend and their attendance drops to 85% and below or are late on a regular basis, the College will first give a verbal warning. If poor attendance continues or drops to 80% without a valid reason, such as a doctor’s note, the College will issue the first warning letter to the student directly. The letter will be written to the student directly and the agent will be notified of the warning letter sent to the student. At this stage, the student will also be invited to attend to the disciplinary hearing where there will be two members of staff from BSMI discussing student’s reasons for not attending his/her classes. Between each step we allow students a 2- week period to demonstrate an improvement in their attendance.

If the student’s attendance does not improve within the two -week period or drops below 80%, the student will receive a final warning letter. When a student receives the final warning, his/her attendance must be 100% over the next two- week period. If not, he or she will be expelled. If any student is absent for 3 consecutive days, teachers report this to the Academic management team so that we can check students whereabouts and find out if there are any welfare issues behind their absence.

The College will keep a written record of any warnings (both written and verbal) in the student’s file. The warning steps we take are as follows:

• Verbal warning
• 1st attendance warning letter
• Final warning letter
• Expulsion

If the situation does not improve following the final warning, BSMI will take further action by contacting the Home Office, which may affect a student’s entitlement to stay in the UK.