Attendance

* Note: from 2016 onwards, reported data includes the whole academic year. Pre-2016, reported data included only half-terms 1-5.

It is a legal requirement that children should attend school regularly. Any absence, except for ill health, is discouraged, including absence for holidays. Parents do not have the legal right to take children out of school on holiday and more information is provided in the School’s Application for Special Leave in an Emergency form.

The school’s Attendance Officer visits the school on a regular basis and will contact you if you are having problems in getting your child to school on time or if he/she is frequently absent. Regular attendance and good time keeping are very important if children are to succeed in school.

Going to School regularly

• develop social skills and confidence by making friends and socialising
• prepare for adult life by getting used to a routine
• get better results and so improve his or her chances in life.

And research shows that it also limits the risk from:

• physical and emotional harm
• exploitation by unsuitable adults
• getting involved in crime and anti-social behaviour
• achieving poor school results and poor prospects.

What should I do if my child is ill?

If your child is really very poorly then they should stay at home and convalesce in bed. Should this be the case, we ask you to call our school office by 10am on each and every day of their absence and notify us of their progress.

We offer a very caring and supportive environment, and can help your child return early to school by:

• administering medicines for your child (if you complete a special form from the office)
• keeping an ‘extra eye’ on your child whilst they recover
• communicating with you closely about ‘how they are doing’
• letting you know if they start feeling unwell again when back at school
• providing them with alternative food choices at lunchtimes (by special arrangement)
• talking to Dr John at the Thames View Medical Centre
• working with you and your child if they aren’t settling or if you are having trouble getting them to school each morning
• talking and listening to you and helping you through this process
• showing flexibility and care, working with you to overcome any difficulties
• helping you decide if your child is well enough to be at School or not.

What is “good attendance”?

The National Target for School Attendance is 95%. This means that, over the year, children miss on average 1 day of schooling per month(or half-a-day per fortnight). In reality, however, at Thames View Infants many children attend school everyday and have 100% attendance.  The majority of children are absent for as little as half-a-day per month or less!  Each term we award all our families who achieve 100% Attendance with a special and very popular “Flower Assembly”. Each term, we also award a bike to a child who has show a remarkable improvement in his or her attendance over the year to date.

How do I know what my child’s attendance is?

We work in partnership with our families and, as a school, we continually monitor attendance.  More often than not, we will already know if your child’s attendance has dropped because at some point, we will have spoken about it together.  Nevertheless, every fortnight, we formally examine the attendance of all our children.  Each term, we write to each parent if their child falls below the following thresholds of concern:

•  Under 95% (half-a-day absenteeism per fortnight)
•  Under 90% (half-a-day per week)
•  Under 85% (almost one day per week)
•  Under 75% (almost a day-and-a-half per week)

Although ‘90%’ sounds high, projected over a child’s educational career, it could amount to, on average, missing a whole academic year of schooling.   By notifying you formally by letter, we can work together to help improve your child’s attendance. Children with attendance lower than 90% are reported to the DfE as a “Persistent Absentee”.

What are the effects of low attendance?

Not attending school regularly can be very detrimental to a child’s education.  In the ‘Attendance Matters’ booklet (see the link below), the DfE argue that, statistically, it is the children with more than 90% attendance that get better exam grades and are more likely to get a good job in later life.  Children with poor attendance have trouble feeling included within school life and tend to have difficulties forming friendships.  Children find it increasingly more difficult to ‘catch up’ with the work they have missed if they are absent regularly.  In a worse case scenario, children not in school regularly are often regarded as the most vulnerable.  The local authority will prosecute families who fail to ensure their child attends school regularly.  We will conduct home well-being visits if we are worried about your child’s attendance or have safeguarding concerns.  All this aside, our school is a caring and happy environment, and with a high waiting list, it’s also not fair for those families that want to send their child to our school, but can’t because it is full.

• Good Attendance at TVI
• DFE Attendance Matters – a guide for Parents
• DCFS ‘Attendance Matters’ Booklet