Clavering Primary School

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR MY CHILD TO HAVE GOOD ATTENDANCE?

In recent years, much research has been carried out on the effect that poor attendance can have on children’s progress at school and how well they achieve in later life.

Regular attendance at school is crucial in raising standards of education and in ensuring every child can meet their full potential. Missing out on lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school. 

For example, 90% attendance might sound good, but what it really means is:

• the child is absent from lessons for the equivalent of 1 half day every week;
• in one year, 4 weeks of lessons are missed.

There is clear evidence of a link between poor attendance at school and low levels of achievement:

• of pupils who miss more than 50% of school, only 3% manage to achieve five A* to Cs, including English and maths.
• of pupils who miss between 10% and 20% of school, only 35% manage to achieve five A* to C GCSEs, including English and maths;
• of pupils who miss less than 5% of school, 73% achieve five A* to Cs, including English and maths.

If a child continues to attend for only 90% of the time over 5 years, he or she will miss half of a school year.

Children who do not attend regularly, often have the following problems:

• they are unable to make the progress they should;
• they can fail to develop important social skills and friendships;
• they can develop a negative attitude towards school and poor attendance patterns. This will affect attendance at future schools (e.g. secondary school and sixth form).

Punctuality is also very important. Children who arrive late don’t settle into the school day and can be uncertain of what is expected of them. Lessons start on time at Clavering, so children need to be on time in order to learn!

We all want Clavering children to achieve, develop positive attitudes to learning and be happy and fulfilled now and in later life. We can only achieve this with the support of parents.

WHAT ARE THE SCHOOL'S PROCEDURES?

School begins at 8.55am for Key Stage One and Key Stage Two pupils; however, nearly every pupil in Key Stages One and Two attend our 'Get Up, Get Active' sessions that begin at 8:40am. Children arriving to school after 8:55am must report to the school office to complete their registration. Children arriving between 8.55am and 9.15am will be counted as being present, but late for school. It is important that your child is punctual, as lateness is disruptive to your child’s progress and to other pupils’ learning.

Government regulations require that schools must report absences. We require a telephone call to the school office as soon as your child is absent from school. In addition to this, we also need a note to be sent with your child when he/she returns to school. The teacher will authorise the absence in the vast majority of cases. Without notification, however, your child's absence is classified as unauthorised. Truancy is not a problem in our school.

A holiday form is available from the school office to cover any arrangements made within the school terms. Only ten days holiday leave is allowed to each pupil annually. Whilst not always possible, we should be grateful if you would arrange holidays to coincide with official school breaks. It is very important that Y6 pupils do not miss their Standard Attainment Tests (SATs) that will take place in May.

A request to withdraw a child during a school session is permissible. However, a child must be withdrawn by an adult (16+), and preferably a parent. Children are not permitted to leave school unaccompanied at the end of the school day unless they are in Y5 or Y6 and school has received written authorisation.

If your child is to be withdrawn during a school session, we would ask you to report to the school office and sign the appropriate register.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF MY CHILD IS OFTEN ABSENT FROM SCHOOL OR LATE FOR SCHOOL?

We monitor the attendance and any persistent lateness of all of our pupils and a Local Authority School Attendance Officer visits us every half-term to check registers.

Problems with attendance:

• if your child’s attendance falls below 86%, you will receive a monitoring letter from the Local Authority School Attendance Officer;
• if there is no improvement, this will be followed up with an unannounced home visit;
• if, after the home visit, there is still a problem, an action plan will be produced by the Local Authority School Attendance Officer working alongside the family and school;
• ultimately, a family can be fined up to £1,000 if absence issues aren’t resolved.

Problems with lateness:

• if you child is persistently late, you will receive a monitoring letter from the Local Authority School Attendance Officer;
• Terry also does ‘late checks’ at the school gate and will speak to any families of children who are late.

A School Attendance Officer's role covers: 

1. Offering support to families and pupils to assist them in securing regular school attendance. This may include:

• home visits;
• meeting pupils in school to offer support and advice;
• liaison between home and school to improve communication links and resolve any difficulties that have hindered progress.

2. Working in partnership with the Children’s Services Department and other agencies to promote the child’s welfare and gain appropriate support.

3. Ensuring that the statutory duty in relation to school attendance is carried out. This includes:

• half termly register checks;
• prosecuting parents who fail to secure their child's attendance at school;
• supervising an Education Supervision Order;
• enforcing a School Attendance Order;
• issuing a Fixed Penalty Fine.

Clavering Primary School wants the very best for our pupils and wants all pupils to take advantage of the learning opportunities on offer at our school. We hope our ‘Attendance’ webpage is useful and helps parents and carers understand of the importance of good school attendance.