There are many of you who bring your children to school on time every day and as a result they have excellent attendance. Attendance and punctuality are important disciplines that help to structure our daily lives and must be taught to the children. Schools have a duty to prepare pupils for life in the 21st century as fully formed citizens and part of this journey is to teach them about the importance of these two disciplines.

The Government line on attendance is very clear:

Central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential is an assumption so widely understood that it is insufficiently stated – pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school.

Every pupil must have an attendance of 96% in order for them to comply with the government regulation. When a child’s absence falls below this figure it has a dramatic impact on their learning. The figures below state very clearly the affect absence has on your child’s learning.

To help encourage a high standard of attendance, the class with the highest attendance percentage each week is awarded our very much loved Attendance Anteater to look after for the week.

Weekly attendance figures are published on this web page every week. It is important that you are familiar with these figures because they give you a clear insight in to the way the school is working hard to reduce absence.

 PUNCTUALITY

The school gates open at 8:30am and are closed promptly at 8:45am.  Entrance to school after this time is classed as late.  All classes complete early morning work and whole school reflection time which is really important for both their educational development but also for their ability to settle in to the morning routine along with their peers.  Coming into a classroom late can feel overwhelming for children.  

Many of you have excellent punctuality habits and bring your child to school on time every day but we still have a number of children who arrive to school late each day.

The figures below state very clearly the impact lateness has on your child’s education:

As a school we understand that mornings can be very stressful and challenging for a family. If you do experience difficulties we ask that you inform the school so that we can give you as much support as possible. One way we help families in the mornings is for them to attend Breakfast Club. Do consider this as an option if you feel it will help.

To help encourage punctuality, the class with the least amount of lates each week are awarded our very popular Punctuality Pup to look after for a week in their classroom.

We need to work together as a community to help each other with this ongoing issue. Please support one another if you are able to, and speak with myself or Mrs Pullen if you are experiencing difficulties. Thank you for your continued support.

Yours faithfully,

Emma Grassby

DSL