Attendance
We promote high standards of attendance and punctuality. We believe that it is essential for all pupils to attend school on time and regularly and avoid any absence. Any loss of time at school can adversely affect a child’s attainment and all pupils benefit from regular school attendance.
REMEMBER: EVERY SCHOOL DAY COUNTS!
The main reason children are absent from school is due to illness. Keeping healthy so your child is able to attend school more regularly is an important part of your child’s life. Parents can also help by ensuring their children stay healthy by taking exercise, getting enough sleep and eating a healthy diet.
Good Common Sense
Use good common sense when deciding whether your child needs to stay at home. Work on the basis that sick children belong at home and well children belong in school. Please remember that early morning aches and pains often pass, so don’t keep your child at home ‘just in case’ when they could be learning in class.
Good Attendance
Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life. We believe that children who do not attend school regularly are more likely to:-
- Fall behind in their school work
- Find it difficult to make and keep friends
- Be unhappy at school
Setting good attendance patterns from an early age will also help your child later on. Employers want to recruit people who are reliable. So children who have a poor school attendance record may have less chance of getting a good job.
What is Good Attendance?
The Government’s target for school attendance is 97% and above.
School Attendance data
Our attendance data shows that we are broadly in line with schools nationally at 96% which falls short of a target of 97%:
Reasons for this identified in the data:
- In 2018/19 persistent absence for pupils whose first language was not English (13.5%) was in the highest 20% of all schools.
- Overall absence for pupils with special educational needs (7.1%) was in the highest 20% of all schools in 2018/19. Persistent absence for pupils with special educational needs (25.0%) was in the highest 20% of all schools in 2018/19 as well as in 2017/18.
Our aim is to improve upon these statistics by working closely with parents and addressing the reasons identified as a priority.