ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY AT HILLBOROUGH JUNIOR SCHOOL
Central to raising standards in education and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential is an assumption so widely understood that it is insufficiently stated – pupils need to attend school regularly to benefit from their education. Missing lessons leaves children vulnerable to falling behind. Children with poor attendance tend to achieve less in both primary and secondary school.
The government expects schools and local authorities to:
- Promote good attendance and reduce absence, including persistent absence;
- Ensure every pupil has access to full-time education to which they are entitled; and,
- act early to address patterns of absence.
- Parents to perform their legal duty by ensuring their children of compulsory school age registered at school attend regularly.
- All pupils to be punctual to their lessons. DfE – August 2020
What are our expectations at Hillborough Junior School
Attendance
It is a statutory requirement for all children in the Junior School to attend school every day. We believe that excellent attendance at school will give each child the best opportunity to be successful in education.
Our aim is for 100% attendance but we insist on 96% to be the benchmark of good attendance. Occasionally children feel unwell and this is to be expected. It is important to notify the school on the first day of illness to maintain accurate records. School will contact parents/carers if pupils are away from school with no reason. If contact cannot be made with parents, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. The child should return to school as soon as they are well enough to do so. Things are a little different at present with the ongoing pandemic but school will keep you informed of any change in arrangements.
All holidays must be taken in school holidays. We are at school for 195 days of the year, leaving 170 days for holidays and special events. Holidays are not permitted in term time and you may be fined should you decide to take a holiday in term time.
Punctuality
Classroom doors are open for children from 8:45 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. Registers will be taken at 8:55 a.m. and they will be closed at 9:05 a.m. Any child arriving after this time is recorded as late. Any child arriving after 9:25 a.m. is recorded as an unauthorised absence for the morning session. Pupils must enter via the main entrance if they are late. If a child is persistently late, you may be called in for a meeting with the Head Teacher and the Family Worker.
Why is good school attendance and punctuality important?
What do we do to promote good attendance?
Hillborough Junior is one of the schools within Luton that has consistently high attendance and we work hard to maintain this. During our weekly Achievements Assembly, the class with the highest attendance receives a certificate to display in their classroom.
We have introduced a new league and cup format to promote good attendance. The league requires each class to play against other classes twice throughout the school year (22 games). In each game, the highest attendance receives 3 points towards the class’s total, a draw would be 1 point each and a loss is 0 points. The classes then move up and down the table depending on the number of points they have. Similarly, the cup competition allows classes to compete against each other. The loser of first round matches will move to the Bowl Competition. Winners remain in the Cup Competition. Losers of the second round go into the Plate Competition. This allows each class to be motivated to winning an award at the end of the year.
Attendance of children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities
We still expect the highest levels of attendance and punctuality for children who are SEND. However, we fully appreciate that some pupils in this group are more likely to need time off for important medical appointments. The advice below is designed to support parents/carers in ensuring the best possible attendance and punctuality.
- Make the school aware of upcoming appointments.
- If appointments are for a short time, bring the child straight back to school – it is better to miss half a day than a whole day.
- Where possible try to arrange appointments outside of school time (we known this is sometimes unachievable and we will be understanding)
- Contact the school if you are having difficulties at drop of and pick up times resulting in late marks – we may be able to help with this.
How do we manage attendance and punctuality?
Our Welfare Assistant and Family Worker monitor registers for attendance and punctuality daily, contacting parents immediately when there is a concern and working with families to improve attendance. The Head Teacher checks class attendance weekly and provides a report to governors each term.
We work very closely with our Education Welfare Service and they do register checks each half term. This joined up work enables us to act swiftly to prevent pupils falling into the persistent absence group (90% or less). Serious persistent absence can result in fines or the issue of a Court Order.
I am struggling to get my child to school regularly
This could be of a variety of reasons such has forgetting to do homework, being in trouble the previous day or more serious reasons such as bullying or anxiety. No matter how serious or trivial the reason, it is clearly having an impact on the child. If this is the case, contact the school as soon as possible using the following details:
01582 61331