Attendance

What are we doing about it?

As a school, we are judged and measured by all sorts of criteria. Sometimes Ofsted visits us and tells we are 'Good'. Sometimes the trust visit us and confirms that we are 'Good'. 

There are all sorts of documents and league tables and data which help these visitors make their judgements. One of those is attendance data. In a nutshell, anything above 96% attendance by pupils is regarded as 'Good'. Last year we were 93%, last term we were 94% so we are improving.

The first few days back after Christmas saw some peculiar things happen to our attendance figures. We started on Tuesday morning at 86%, by the afternoon we were 90% and on Wednesday morning we were at 93% - We managed as a community to improve by 7% over little more than 24 hours.

Of course the reason for this was confusion over the early start to the term and the fact that many secondary schools were starting later than us. Once you knew we were in, attendance improved.

I guess the lesson here is about communication and we are constantly trying to improve our skills in this area. A major step is the appointment of a new school Attendance Officer this term. For those of you with younger children, she will be immediately familiar: Mrs Kate Fielder. 

She is now your contact point for support with attendance - whether your child should be or will be in or not. She will also contact you if the school feels we need to offer you support.

One message she will be delivering is that we not will authorise holidays in term time or allow holidays to be extended into term time except in exceptional circumstances. That term has many interpretations - so please come and talk to us well in advance and be very prepared for a refusal.

So what are WE doing about it - it is not a 'royal we'; it is not just the school. It is you, me, the staff and the children working together to get the school the judgement it deserves.