Attendance
Why It Matters
At Town End Academy we recognise the importance of being in school, on time, every day.
The national average at expected for children is 96%.
Did you know that an attendance percentage of 90% is equivalent to missing 19 school days a year? If your child has 90% attendance, they will have the equivalent of half a day off per week, which adds up to 247 days off over their full school career. This equals one full school year of lost education.
If your child is not in school regularly they will miss out on fundamental learning in the classroom. This is extremely difficult to catch up on and affects all aspects of their future education, as well as forming bad habits.
As part of our ongoing support system for children and families, you will receive regular updates on your child’s attendance via the Scholarpack app as well as correspondence if attendance falls below average.
For further information, please refer to Guidance on Infection Control from the Public Health agency to determine if and for how long your child must stay off school.
If you have any questions about attendance please pop into the office or give us a call. We're here to help.
What School Will Do
Daily
- First and foremost, provide a warm and welcoming environment for children to thrive in
- First call response – this is a system which contacts parents and carers if there is any uncertainty surrounding a child’s absence.
Weekly
- Weekly messages via a scholar pack app or text messages updating the percentage of attendance for every child.
- Attendance based assemblies where we reward cohorts of children with the highest attendance
- Weekly display amended to reflect attendance of each cohort and whole school data.
Half Termly
- Attendance reviewed for all children and letters sent out where attendance drops below 96%
- Attendance review meetings held with parents and carers for any concerning patterns of attendance which is then monitored over a 4 week period.
- Liaise with the local authority to review any patterns of poor attendance
Annually
- special treat for children with 100% for the year and children who have had year on year attendance at 100%
- Formally report to parents a breakdown of attendance over the year.
In addition, our processes involve making visits to the home if :-
- There is a failure to provide a reason for absence
- Your child is absent for 3 days or longer without contact
Essentially, we work with families to overcome any barriers or challenges to ensuring excellent attendance. This is on a bespoke level and differs from family to family.
What You Can Do
We understand that children will need time off school when they are poorly.
However, you can avoid attendance becoming a concern by engaging with school and not taking unnecessary days off e.g. holidays during term time. Trying to make appointments for your child, and other family members, out of school hours will reduce time missed in classroom. This will make less of an impact on their school life.
You may not realise how quickly the odd day off can lead to a big dip in attendance percentage, indicating to school and other agencies that there may be problems to address.
If your child is not in school regularly, they will miss out on fundamental learning in the classroom. This is extremely difficult to catch up on and affects all aspects of their future education, as well as forming bad habits.
If your child is unable to attend school because they are ill, then please contact school to let us know. If you do not inform school then school will need to make a home visit.
If you are attending an appointment and it can’t be rearranged or out of school time, please show the office your appointment card/text and your absence will be authorised.
Punctuality is just as important as attendance. If your child has 100% attendance but regularly arrives up to half an hour late, they are still missing vital learning.
If you are late, an adult must come into school and sign them in.
As part of our on-going support system for children and their families you will receive regular updates on your child’s attendance with a strong focus on how it affects their learning.
Most importantly we have an open-door policy. If you have ANY queries or would like support on any matter, we have a great welfare team who can provide referrals or advice.
