Attendance and Lateness – Letter

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ATTENDANCE AND LATENESS

6th December 2018

Dear Parents/Carers,

ATTENDANCE

 

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.

 

Ofsted made the following point about what the school needs to do to improve attendance during the inspection of September 2017:

 

Take action to reduce absence, including persistent absence, especially of disadvantaged pupils.

 

As a result of this the school has introduced a number of incentives and initiatives to address this ongoing issue.

 

ATTENDANCE GIFT SHOP

 

In January 2019 we will open the Attendance Gift Shop. Children will need to collect attendance stamps in exchange for items in the gift shop. A stamp will be awarded for each full week of attendance and punctuality; once they have achieved 6 stamps they will be able to visit the Gift Shop.

 

CINEMA TRIP

 

All children who have 96% plus attendance from MONDAY 10th DECEMBER through to the end of the academic year, will be treated to a trip to the cinema. This applies to every child from Nursery to Year 6.

 

ATTENDANCE CUP

 

We have also introduced an attendance cup which is presented to the class who have the best weekly attendance at

our Monday morning assembly. The purpose of the cup is to encourage the children to work as a class, unite them in the common goal of having excellent attendance and to benefit from being at school.

 

WEEKLY ATTENDANCE FIGURES

 

Weekly attendance figures are published in the newsletter which is sent to parents/carers every Friday. 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.

 

The school introduced an incentive last year for children who accessed free school meals which will continue again this year.

 

PUNCTUALITY

 

This is another area the school has to address and improve in order to drive up standards. 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:

 

 

Since October half term there has been a large number of children who have arrived late to school:

 

Week Beginning No of Pupils Number of Lates
5 November 2018 31 35
12 November 2018 31 40
19 November 2018 42 64
26 November 2018 40 55
3 December 2018 33 41
TOTALS 177 235

 

This is a very worrying set of statistics. Every effort must be made to reduce this figure immediately. 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.

Below are a list of tips which may help if you do find punctuality a problem in the mornings. I hope that you find them useful.

  1. Rethink the meaning of “on time.” People who are always on time are really people who arrive early every day–and acknowledge that things can go wrong to set them back several minutes. When things do “go wrong” these students arrive on time!
  2. Understand the importance of being on time. Pupils who are always on time are the people who achieve well at school. In the working world, the people who are always on time are the people who achieve success.
  3. Get enough sleep. If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, then make a serious effort to get to bed earlier. Sufficient sleep is essential for maximum brain function anyway, so you really don’t want to ignore this aspect of your scholastic habits.
  4. Give yourself a realistic amount of time to dress and groom. You can do this with a simple exercise: Get up early one morning and time yourself (moving at a normal pace) to see how long it takes you to get ready. You may be surprised at the time it takes, especially if you find you have been trying to squeeze forty minutes worth of grooming into fifteen minutes each morning. You can try creating a time management clock.
  5. Know exactly when you need to be at your destination and subtract ten or fifteen minutes to establish your arrival time. This will give you time to go to the bathroom or chat with friends. What time are you expected to be seated in your home room or your first class? If class begins at 8:45, you should arrive at the school by 8:40 and be in your seat at 8:45.
  6. Communicate any problems. If your bus is always late or you have to take your little brother to school and it always makes you late, just explain this to your teacher.
  7. Listen to traffic news. If you depend on public transportation to get to school, always keep an eye on schedule interruptions.
  8. Have a backup plan for your transportation. If you normally ride to school with a friend, think ahead and plan what to do if your friend gets sick.
  9. Set your clocks forward by ten minutes. This is a little psychological trick that many people play on themselves. The funny thing is, it really works!

 

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 Mrs Toms our Pastoral Support worker if you are experiencing difficulties. Thank you for your continued support.

 

Yours faithfully

C Soyka

Headteacher