Why is regular school attendance so important?
Coldean Primary School works closely with children and parents in connection with attendance so that each child can achieve their full potential. By law, all children of compulsory school age (five to sixteen) must receive a suitable full-time education. Once your child is registered at school, you are legally responsible for making sure that they attend regularly and on time.
In a perfect world everyone would be in school for the full 190 days every year.
Without missing any days the children would achieve 100 percent attendance.
Being realistic we understand that children sometimes get ill, therefore we aim that all children are in school for a minimum of 97 percent of the year.
In an exam most people would be happy to get 80 or 90 percent. However, when talking about attendance these figures actually mean children have missed a significant number of days learning. And the number of days missed gets bigger for each percentage as the year progresses.
If a child is sitting with attendance around 90% by the end of the year they have missed almost 4 weeks (a month) in school.
It stands to reason that by missing more days in school children make less academic progress than their classmates who attend regularly. Not coming to school has a negative impact on the progress children are making in their learning. By missing out on regular schooling some children are having to constantly try to play catch up. Having chunks of knowledge missing really disadvantages children compared to their classmates (for instance if they miss out the lesson that explain what a fraction is they will really struggle when they start doing calculations involving fractions with different denominators).
By not attending school regularly children also miss out on spending time with their friends. Infrequent attendance can have a negative impact on children’s friendships.
Being absent from school can increase anxieties and have a detrimental effect on children’s mental health due to the fact that friendship groups move on while they are away from school.
These issues can be overcome by simply ensuring children attend school every day
SCHOOL TIMINGS PUNCTUALITY SICKNESS APPOINTMENTS
HOLIDAY IN TERM TIME EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES FIXED PENALTY NOTICES
For further information on attendance please check our full Attendance Policy.