Your child's attendance
You are responsible for your child’s attendance.
As a parent or carer of a child aged between 5 and 16 years, 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 8:35am, in good time for morning registration at 8:45am. At this time, pupils should be seated in class and ready to begin the day.
The school day is:
Reception & KS1 - 7hours and 30minutes
KS2 - 7hours and 35minutes
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.
We would also like to make you aware that the school car park is not open to parents at this time. If you are driving, you will need to park in a suitable location and walk your child to the school office where they will need to be signed in.
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 via the request form.
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.
Our attendance strategy
Celebrating good attendance
Weekly and termly rewards
Each class from year 2 upwards now has an Attendance Champion who records the daily 'Scores on the Doors' celebrating both the daily class attendance and the class attendance for the previous week.
The weekly attendance winners are celebrated each Friday during our Celebration Assembly and the winners receive the rosette to display on their classroom door for the following week.
At the end of each long term, the winning class for the whole term receive a reward afternoon with a budget to spend on their chosen activity. The class teacher also gets the afternoon out of class as a reward! The children also receive rewards for 100% attendance, excellent attendance (above 96%) and improved attendance.
HERO Club
To encourage good punctuality, we have now introduced HERO Club throughout school. HERO Club which stands for 'Here Everyday Ready On Time'. Every child that has been in school on time every day of that week will receive 5 bonus Dojo points on a Friday to spend in class.
Every child that achieves 100% attendance each week will also be entered into a 'Spin the Wheel' game whereby the winner will receive a reward.
">The Brent Family Focus- Attendance newsletter
