18 Jan 2008 - Attendance and Punctuality
18th January 2008
Dear Parents
Attendance and Punctuality
Attendance and punctuality are two of the things that we as a school, must report to County and, in turn, the government. It is also one of the things that we are judged against, as school data is compared with other schools nationally, to develop a picture of how we are doing when compared with other similar schools. Each year we are set an Attendance Target, which we must meet. Last year we did not meet our target of 95.1% Attendance, which resulted in us being graded as merely “satisfactory” in this area in our recent Ofsted Report. This was disappointing, as we were graded “good” in all other areas.
One of the ways that we hope to raise the profile of good attendance amongst parents is by sending our “Every Day Matters” fact sheet to all parents. We hope that this will help to remind everyone about the importance, which we as a school, place upon regular and punctual attendance.
In addition to this, at the end of the Autumn Term, we also awarded Attendance Certificates to all children who had achieved 100% attendance or had only missed one session. Pleasingly, 27% of our children achieved this. I am also really pleased to say that the vast majority of our children are arriving in school on time. Thank you very much for your continued efforts to ensure that this happens.
We will also be sending out Mid Year Reports shortly, which will show attendance percentages for individual children. Additionally, we are also sending out Attendance Sheets to parents of those children whose attendance or punctuality may be presenting as a cause for concern.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and once again, thank you for your support in helping us to ensure that tackling poor attendance, remains high on our school improvement agenda.
Yours sincerely