Attendance and Punctuality.
At Beeches Junior School, we aim to equip our children to be comfortable with their own identity and proud of who they are; to be confident, creative, articulate learners with excellent all-round skills, enabling them to Aspire, Believe, Strive and Achieve.
Parents have a crucial role to play in their child's education. Some helpful strategies include:
- Making sure your child is in school, on time everyday.
- Ensure they are wearing the correct uniform
- Encourage your child to have enough sleep so they are able to concentrate throughout the day
- Where necessary, informing us when your child is absent by calling the school office before 9:15am on their first day of absence.
- Helping them to be prepared for the school day, i.e. having their PE kit on PE days, having their homework ready to be handed in on time, etc.
- Making sure they have had breakfast before school.
‘Parents are responsible for making sure that their children of compulsory school age receive a suitable full-time education.’ (Department for Education, 2015). Nevertheless, to help parents with this, the school will monitor attendance and punctuality and support families who are experiencing difficulties in getting their children to school. If you are having difficulties with your child coming in to school, on time, everyday, please contact us.
Only 10% of pupils who are persistently absent from school achieve 5 A*-C grades (or equivalent) at GCSE level and with primary education providing the foundations to a child’s learning it is important that parents, pupils, school staff and governors all work together to ensure high levels of attendance and punctuality.
School has a duty to know the whereabouts of all children on roll. We ask that parents contact the school no later than 9:15am to let the school know if your child is going to be absent. Alternatively, a message can be left on the school’s answering machine. Where contact has not been made, the attendance officer will arrange for contact to be made to ensure each child is accounted for. Where a child cannot be accounted for, we may initiate a home visit to ensure the safety of a child.
Each child’s attendance will be treated as a unique case; however, contact will usually be made when attendance falls below 95%. If contact is difficult to establish, a home visit may be carried out.
Where attendance falls below 90%, the child will be considered a persistent absentee and classed as a vulnerable child by the Local Authority. All measures should be taken to prevent attendance from reducing to this level unless there is an exceptional circumstance.
When a child’s attendance is a concern, the school works with the ‘Fast Track’ attendance scheme governed by The Education Legal Intervention Team. This process includes specific measures to be taken by families to improve attendance. Should the programme fail to improve attendance, parents could face legal action which could result in criminal prosecution and parents receiving a criminal record. This is in extreme cases and Beeches Junior School will support parents in any way we can to improve attendance and prevent persistent absences, and therefore prevent the Fast Track programme from being initiated.
|
Attendance in one school year |
Equals this number of days absent |
Which is approximately this many weeks |
Which means this number of lessons missed |
|
90% |
19 days |
4 weeks |
100 lessons |
|
80% |
38 days |
8 weeks |
200 lessons |
|
70% |
57 days |
11.5 weeks |
280 lessons |
Punctuality
Punctuality is also taken very seriously at Beeches Junior School as lateness can result in pupils; feeling awkward when walking into lessons late, missing the start of vital lessons, causing disruption to the rest of the class as well as persistent lateness contributing to the forming of bad habits which could affect them in later life.
To help with effective timekeeping, the school doors open at 8:45am, allowing ten minutes for the children to get into their class, settled and ready for their lessons to begin at 8:55am. It is vitally important that the children are in school to begin their learning journey promptly, so it is advised that the children aim to get into school ready for when the doors to open.
|
Minutes late per day during the school year |
Equates to days of learning lost each year |
|
5 minutes |
3.4 days |
|
10 minutes |
6.9 days |
|
15 minutes |
10.3 days |
|
20 minutes |
13.8 days |
|
25 minutes |
20.7 days |
The Designated Liaison Person responsible for monitoring attendance and punctuality at Beeches Junior School is Mrs Liddington. Any queries regarding attendance and punctuality should be discussed with her in the first instance.