Attendance – including reports/update on attendance levels, for pupils.

Attendance 2010-2011

The percentage of sessions missed through authorised was 3.23% for the academic year 2010/11.The percentage of unauthorised sessions absence was 0.27% – although pupils arriving late before registration is closed was 0.3%. Attendance continues to be ‘good’ – latest figure, from autumn census 2011, is  96.5%, which is inline with our target of 96.11%.

               click here -  Attendance & Punctuality Policy 2011

       

What are we doing to make out attendance better?

  Governors actions:

Governors have agreed a new Attendance & Punctuality Policy, which is now available in the policies section on the school website (also the link above).  The school is required to set targets for attendance by the LA who require schools to set targets of 96% and above, which is regarded as ‘good’ attendance.  Schools also have a half-termly meeting with the Education Welfare Officer, where absence and lateness is discussed.  Lateness is not yet a ‘cause for concern’ in our school, however there is an increasing number of pupils who are not on the playground when the school bell goes in the morning at 8.55am.   Therefore, we will be asking the parents of pupils who are late and are required to bring their child to the front entrance of the school, to give a written reason for lateness, which will enable the school to monitor lateness patterns and hence offer families advice and guidance in this matter.  A lateness book will be available for this purpose.

We have consulted the pupils: 

We have also consulted with the children through class and school councils, requesting that they too share with us the responsibility of good attendance and punctuality.  Most children stated that they ‘felt a bit funny’ and ‘felt we had missed out’, when they came back to school after absence and/or holidays.   All classes had some ideas about rewards for good attendance  i.e. extra play, certificates, stamps and team points.  A vote was cast and the most popular were extra play, and teampoints.  Therefore every half-term each class’s attendance will be calculated and whichever class get the highest attendance will get the extra play.   Our aim is to encourage awareness of the importance of good attendance.  Of course we will continue to reward children who have 100% attendance at the end of the school year with a ‘token’ of some sort.