Please report student absence from college as soon as possible using the relevant campus Absence Reporting contacts:

Eastbourne Campus

Telephone: 030 300 38932

Email: Eastbourne.Absence@escg.ac.uk

Station Plaza, Ore Valley and ATC Campuses

Telephone: 030 300 38387

Email: Hastings.Absence@escg.ac.uk

Lewes and Newhaven Campuses

Telephone: 030 300 38940

Email: Lewes.Absence@escg.ac.uk

Student Absence Text Notification for Parents

Starting from Monday 9th September we will be running a college SMS absence notification system. The aim of the system is to provide parents with timely notification if their young person is absent from college. Please note that they might still receive an absence notification text even if the absence has been reported in advance. In this case no further action is required. For more information, see the FAQ section on this page.

FAQs

Who is classified as a young person?

• This is anyone aged 18 or under (or those aged under 25 in receipt of an EHCP) on the 31st August 2024.

Why is the college using this system?

• Attendance at all lessons is a requirement of study at ESCG, and we hope that by notifying parents and guardians of absences when they occur, problems can be corrected before they escalate.

How will the notifications work?

• When a register is marked within the first half-hour of a timetabled lesson, if the young person is is not present, a message will trigger automatically notifying you of their non-attendance. Please note, in cases where a teacher does not mark the register during the session, no notification will be sent.

How frequently can parents expect notifications in the case of absence?

• At present, parents will receive one notification per timetabled session that is missed. This is with the view that a missed morning session for example will see you notified, and able to act on that information in real-time before further sessions are missed.

Will parents be texted in the case of a pre-arranged absence such as a medical appointment?

• If the tutor has been notified of the absence in advance (prior to the day), hopefully not, provided this has been logged in advance by the Tutor as an authorised absence parents should not receive a notification.

What will the Message be?

• <First Forename> is absent from their lesson at <Session Start Time>. If you have already notified us please ignore this message. http://bit.ly/escg-absent-sms.
  The bit.ly link will bring you back to this page.

Does the message mean that the young person did not show up to the whole lesson?

• The notification is sent only once the student is actually marked as absent. This means if their young person turns up to their session after a register has been taken, they will still trigger the absence notification. It is college policy that students are in attendance at the start of any timetabled session to not be considered late.

• Following feedback we are now sending a follow up message to advise that their young person has now arrived and been marked in as "Late". This message will be:
  <First Forename> has now been marked late. For more info about this please refer to http://bit.ly/escg-absent-sms

What should parents do if they receive an absence notification?

• If parents receive a notification, in the first instance we encourage them to contact their young person for context, to ask if they did indeed miss the session and why. In the second instance, we request that they contact their young person's teacher or tutor for more information.