Please refer to the Attendance Policy for further information.
Attendance Matters:
Attendance at school of less than 90% is classed as persistent absence by the Department for Education. National figures show that only 68% of pupils achieve the expected standard in the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics where their attendance is below 90% compared with 86% of pupils with attendance of 95% or above. This is due to learning missed in lesson time and the difficulty of catching up with lost learning on a child’s return to school. For our youngest children, compulsory school age is 5 years old.
Punctuality Matters too! Being frequently late for school adds up to lost learning:
Arriving 5 minutes late every day adds up to 3.5 days lost each year
Arriving 10 minutes late every day adds up to 7 days absence per year
Arriving 15 minutes late every day adds up to 10 days absence per year
Arriving 30 minutes late every adds up to 22 days absence per year
· Attendance of 95% for the year equals 10 days of absence - that is 2 full school weeks of a child’s learning missed for that year.
· Attendance of 90% for the year equals 19 days that a child has been absent - that is almost 4 school weeks missed.
· Attendance of 85% for the year equals 29 days that a child has been absent - that is almost 6 school weeks missed.
· Attendance of 80% for the year equals 38 days of missed learning - that is over 7 school weeks missed.
The school day has two attendance sessions. If a child is unwell in the morning but seems better by lunchtime, they should be brought to school for the afternoon session (unless they have had a recent spell of D&V which requires them to stay at home for 48 hours.
If a child has to have an emergency medical appointment, this should be at the beginning or end of a school day and after registration sessions where possible.
The school year has 190 days for pupils to attend a year. There are 175 days per year when they do not have to attend school – every effort should be made for appointments to be in this time off.
Attendance is communicated each half term in the form of a Red, Amber, Green letter system based on the above facts to help keep parents informed so that individual attendance is as high as possible. This is a strategy to avoid the need for the Local Authority become involved when attendance falls to 90% or below.