What’s on w/e 16th December 2022. issue 558

Attendance so far…

School average for this week: 
Class 1: 65% Class 2: 87.6% Class 3: 87.6% Class 4: 83.6%

School average for the week: 80.4%

School average for this term: 
Class 1: 90.2% Class 2: 96.7% Class 3: 96.7% Class 4: 95.6%

School average for the term: 95.0%

Illnesses really have impacted schools, and learning opportunities, over the past few weeks!

The only way to bring this back up towards the DfE target of 97%… is improved attendance.

(Please have a look at our Attendance page on our website for more information.)

School applications are open.  Here’s the link to our previous post regarding the application round for next year’s intake, and a link to Devon’s Admissions’ website.

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Attendance… We frequently report the attendance of individual year groups as it’s a really good way to see if school attendance is at a good percentage… with it as high as possible of course! The DfE have a target of 96.5% but sadly, we finished the year, last July, being slightly below this.
Attending school regularly is vital to help children achieve and to give them the best possible start in life. It’s also a legal requirement of parents once children are of school age and enrolled in mainstream education. Ofsted has a strong view about attendance of course and, therefore, too many absences can lead into difficult discussions about how we can support children to achieve and do well – we could even be downgraded for our current Good status as a result.
Absences will only be authorised if they meet exceptional circumstances. With only 190 statutory school days in the year, there are 175 days (weekends and school holidays) left to plan for family visits, non-urgent medical/dental appointments, holidays etc.  School holidays are published well in advance and parents are expected to plan and take family holidays at this time so as not to disrupt their child’s education. We also try to arrange our Inset (training) days to provide time for travel… such as this term’s October 21st.
Holidays… are almost always not recognised as meeting ‘exceptional circumstances’ and therefore an absence would be unauthorised.  This could result in a penalty notice being issued by DCC.
Punctuality is important too, and the earlier we get our children into the right habits, the better. You may not realise that being just 5 minutes late every day equals 3 days of school lost a year. Please bring your child for 8.45am when they door is open and the classroom has a learning activity ready for them.