Attendance
You are responsible for your child’s attendance.
As a parent, you are legally responsible for ensuring your child accesses a full-time education that meets their needs. Please see the following guidance for more information:
School attendance and absence: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Why attendance matters
We have high expectations for all our pupils and our aim is for them to:
- Enjoy their experience of school
- Be successful in their time both at our school and in the future
- Have the best possible start to support their adult life
By attending school regularly, children can:
- Develop and sustain meaningful relationships
- Be successful and able to achieve academically
- Reduce their risk of becoming a victim of crime or abuse
- Reduce their risk of becoming involved in antisocial or criminal behaviour.
The link between irregular school attendance and poor academic achievement and limited life outcomes has been widely researched.
How attendance is calculated
The school day is broken down into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, making a total of ten sessions over the full school week. Children must have attended all 10 sessions to receive 100% attendance for the week.
If your child does not attend school, their attendance for the week is reduced by 10% for each session missed. For example, if your child is absent for a morning, they will have attended 9 sessions out of 10, giving them an attendance of 90% for the week. The school will then calculate each child’s attendance over the term and then the year.
If your child is regularly absent from school
We expect every child to attend school every day and be on time, but we do understand that sometimes there may be exceptional circumstances that lead to a child being absent.
Children with an attendance level of less than 90% are considered to be persistently absent. This level of absence over a year would suggest a child has been absent for half a day per school week. This can have a negative impact on their education, social skills and ability to catch up with the learning they have missed.
Punctuality
The school requires pupils to be in school and ready to learn and we therefore ask you to ensure that your child arrives at school for 8:40am, in good time for morning registration at 8:50am. At this time, pupils should be seated in class and ready to begin the day.
Being late can be disruptive to the class, cause embarrassment for your child and may have a negative impact on their attainment. It is imperative that, as the responsible adult, you instil in your child the importance of attending school regularly and on time.
Term Time Holidays
September 2013 amendments to the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations (2006) state that Headteachers may not grant holidays of any description. Furthermore, Headteachers may not grant any leave of absences during term time, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
If you feel you need to remove your child from school due to exceptional circumstances, please submit any requests to the school office.
How to improve your child’s attendance
You can support your child’s regular attendance by ensuring:
- A clear bedtime routine is established, and alarms set in good time
- Bags, lunch boxes and PE kits are organised and packed the night before they are needed, and homework is completed.
- Medical and dental appointments are organised outside of school hours wherever possible
If you feel you may need support in improving your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact The Family Support Team.
Attendance monitoring procedures
As a school, we are legally required to monitor your child’s attendance and punctuality. Our school is also supported in monitoring and managing attendance by SEASS, the Southeast Attendance Advisory Service. SEASS works to support schools, parents/carers, and pupils to achieve regular school attendance to help them reach their full attainment potential. Attendance meetings are held fortnightly to discuss concerns and identify families that may need support.
The process we follow when monitoring attendance is as follows:
We always aim to offer support and guidance to families struggling to improve attendance and as well as support in school, we can offer referrals for support from external agencies where required.
Study Bugs
Happy, Healthy and In School
Studybugs helps schools look after their pupils. It helps us to take a simple, whole-school approach to pastoral care – maximum wellbeing, health and attendance, minimum stress.
By signing up to Study Bugs via the app, you can easily report your child's absence, keep track of their attendance and receive notifications to keep you up-to-date with improvements.
You can sign up for the app by following this link:
https://studybugs.com/about/parents
Our attendance strategy
Celebrating good attendance
We have a range of exciting initiatives to encourage and celebrate good attendance. By celebrating this we aim to motivate our children attend school regularly and actively participate in their learning journey!
Attendance Champions
To support our good attendance, we have both staff and children Attendance Champions. Our Champions are here to support with any aspect of attendance and to offer encourage and guidance. Our staff Attendance Champions are Mrs Baker, Mrs Martin and Mrs Tanner. Our children's Attendance Champions are Mia, Zara, Edi and Jeremiah; they will regularly be checking with attendance across the school.
Weekly and termly rewards
We have a range of rewards both big and small to celebrate good attendance:
- Friday Juice and Cookies: Children with 100% attendance for the week will enjoy a special treat of juice and cookies every Friday with Mrs Cook.
- Scores on the Doors = Extra Playtime: Each class’s attendance will be displayed on their door. The class with the highest attendance each day will earn an extra 5 minutes of playtime.
- Friday Afternoon Reward Time: The class with the highest attendance for the week will have 15 minutes of reward time on Friday afternoon, allowing them to engage in fun activities and celebrate their achievement.
- Termly Big Win Raffle: Children who maintain 100% attendance throughout the week will receive a raffle ticket. These tickets will be collected each Friday, and on the last day of term, one lucky ticket will be drawn. Prizes include Gravity vouchers, scooters, or an Amazon Fire Tablet, providing an exciting incentive for consistent attendance.
Look out for the winners on our Facebook page:
STAR Club
Any child can be a member of the STAR Club, they just need to be...
⭐in School on Time And Ready to learn! ⭐
