Attendance
Attendance at Westerhope
We know that attendance patterns are established early in a child’s educational journey and research tells us there is a direct link between school attendance and future success.
Our priority as a school is to ensure all children can attend more, to achieve more.
While 100% attendance is ideal, we understand that children may occasionally be unwell, and absences due to genuine illness are acceptable. As a school, we carefully monitor attendance and will notify families if their child’s attendance begins to decline.
How do we encourage regular attendance with the children?
Our school provides a safe, supportive and nurturing environment so children want to be here everyday. We have an exciting and well-thought-out curriculum, extra curricular opportunities and a variety of school trips to make the school experience one the children want to be part of.
Children also know about the importance of regular attendance and we promote attendance in a number of ways:
- discuss attendance in a dedicated weekly class assembly
- daily, in class, talk about how many children are in each day and praise improvement
- reward children who achieved the school target (96%) and those who achieve 100%
- reward the class when children are in each day and on time
- implement attendance initiatives for whole school and to boost attendance for specific groups of children
How do we support families to enable their children to attend school regularly?
We work closely with families to identify barriers which may impact on regular school attendance and we do this through:
- meetings
- sign posting to resources and advice
- coffee mornings
- working with external agencies
- newsletters to provide information, advice and support
- a dedicated pastoral team to provide additional support for families and children
- bespoke, targeted support as and when needed
Knowledge is power – What you need to know about attendance
As a school, we provide mutual support and appropriate challenge and are persistent when tackling poor attendance so we can make a difference for our children and families.
It is important everyone has a clear understanding of what attendance expectations are and how easily attendance can fall below the acceptable threshold.
Did you know . . .
Children are only expected to attend school for 190 days out of a whole year.
Our school attendance target is 96%
While 100% attendance is ideal, we understand that children may occasionally be unwell, and absences due to genuine illness are acceptable. As a school, we carefully monitor attendance and will notify families if their child’s attendance begins to decline.
95% and above
Very good attendance! Nationally, all schools and children are expected to achieve 96% attendance. Children are able to access most of their learning and are still likely to achieve good qualifications when they are older.
90% – 95%
Unsatisfactory attendance. Your child will be unable to access all of the teaching in school, which will have an impact on their learning and their readiness to learn. School will make contact with parent/carers to establish the reason your child’s attendance is declining and offer support to ensure that your child’s attendance increases.
90% and less
Research shows that missing 10% of school can result in children achieving significantly poorer results than their high attending peers. Any child with 90% and below is called a PERSISTENT ABSENTEE.
At this stage school will discuss your child’s attendance with you and support you to improve your child’s attendance. If attendance does not improve, the local authority will instigate attendance procedures which may result in a fine.
90% Attendance – This means that your child misses approximately 4 weeks of school a year. By the time they leave school they would have missed nearly A WHOLE YEAR OF SCHOOL.
Attendance during 1 School Year | Equals approx. days absence | Which is approx. weeks absence |
95% | 9 days | 2 weeks |
90% | 19 days | 4 weeks |
85% | 29 days | 6 weeks |
80% | 38 days | 8 weeks |
75% | 48 days | 10 weeks |
70% | 57 days | 11.5 weeks |
65% | 67 days | 13.5 weeks |
Punctuality is also extremely important to your child’s learning.
If children arrive late, and after the register is closed, they will receive a ‘U’, mark which means on the register they have missed their whole morning session. In a week, this will account for 10% of their attendance that week!
Minutes late per day during the school year | Approx number of days of teaching lost in a year |
5 mins | 3 days |
10 mins | 6 days |
15 mins | 9 days |
20 mins | 12 days |
30 mins | 18 days |
Term-time holidays
Families are strongly discouraged from taking holidays during term time, as this significantly impacts children’s learning. Absences during term time will only be authorised by the Headteacher in exceptional circumstances. Please note that families who take unauthorised term-time holidays may be fined.
You can learn more about attendance expectations by following these links:
- attendance-policy.pdf
- Working together to improve school attendance (applies from 19 August 2024) (DFE)
- Summary table of responsibilities for school attendance (applies from 19 August 2024) (DFE)
- School Anxiety and Refusal | Parent Guide to Support | YoungMinds