The Importance of Good Attendance

It is commonly believed that excellent attendance at school leads to the best educational outcomes for our children; the more they miss school, the lesser their chances of succeeding. We all want the best for our children and helping them get to school on time every day is one way you can make a big difference to your child. 

Please see below a table of what is deemed as good attendance rates:

     100%                                    The target for everyone. Rewards available for pupils reaching this.
Over 97% = 5 days absence (or less) in one year. Very good attendance.
Below 97%  Your child’s chances of good grades are in danger. Support from Mrs Watts and class teachers is available if you are ill for long periods or have other reasons for days of absence from school. We can help.
Below 90% = more than 4 school weeks off school. This is called ‘Persistent Absence’. Your child’s chance of good grades is negatively affected.

96.1% is the Government expectation at the current time, so we are looking for ALL pupils to be in school 96.1% of the time at least. Come on TEAM SWAN…we can do it!

In school we track the attendance of vulnerable groups and work hard with our families to support them when attendance issues arise by working together. Working together is one of our school values. The Headteacher and Attendance Lead (Mrs Watts) share information with staff about patterns of attendance in our school, so that they can also support families in their classes. 

Mrs Watts attends regular meetings about attendance in local networks, Nottinghamshire LEA and other schools to gather the best ideas for supporting our families and the latest information about attendance in schools and expectations for this. We like to keep up to date, because it helps us to help families and children.

Attendance Assembly & Reward

Every Monday morning, Miss Hodgkinson and Mrs Watts lead an attendance assembly. This celebrates the attendance of each class and is used to encourage good attendance.

An attendance trophy is presented to the class with the highest attendance and their photograph goes up on the attendance display in the school hall. Each class attendance percentage is pinned in the right place on a rocket track each week in assembly, where we can see how close each class are to 96.1% or beyond.

At the end of the year, the class with the highest attendance percentage across the year wins a tasty treat! In July 2022 Year 2 won the end of year reward of a afternoon at Pizza Express making their own pizzas!

GO FOR IT TEAM SWAN!

Lates and Absences Procedure

It is very important for your child’s successful education and life chances that they attend school regularly. Please follow the procedures below if your child is going to be late or absent from school:
  • Phone school on the day your child is absent before 9.00am. Any phone calls taken after this time will not count as authorised absence. – Telephone – 01636 683353
  • If you are late buzz the staff in the office on the intercom at the gate and go to the office to sign your child in with the reason for being late.
  • Discuss with school at the earliest opportunity, any problems/worries that are affecting your child’s attendance.
  • Try to arrange medical/dental appointments outside school hours but if this is not possible please let the school office know when your child will be absent for this appointment.
  • DO NOT take holidays in term time as they cannot be authorised.

Remember: By law you must come to school