Attendance
Good attendance has been proven to make a big difference to children’s progress at school and it stands to reason doesn’t it? If your child is not at school, they cannot take part in the learning activities their classmates are accessing. Furthermore, children’s learning can be disjointed if their attendance is poor as children develop gaps in their learning so find new learning confusing. Our attendance target at Loxley is 97%. Most children at Loxley have excellent attendance at Loxley and regularly reach or exceed this target. Attendance below 95% starts to become concerning to us. When attendance is below 90%, Sheffield’s Attendance and Inclusion Service class this as “persistent absence” and steps need to be taken try to enable the child to attend school more often. Of course, some absences are completely unavoidable e.g. when a child is too ill to attend school however avoidable absences such as taking a family holiday in term time are not allowed at Loxley Primary School unless there are exceptional circumstances. Below are links to the school’s attendance policy and guidance from Sheffield City Council.
*Although we are an academy school Sheffield City Council still have statutory responsibilities regarding attendance and inclusion.
One of our classes sitting in rows during the Covid restrictions. You will notice 100% attendance in class which is not uncommon at Loxley Primary School.
Punctuality
Lateness equals lost learning. The figures below are calculated over a school year. Lateness can also mean the rest of the class is disturbed and children who are late miss teaching which will help them understand their learning tasks. We do understand that on occasions unplaned events get in the way of coming to school on time and its much better to be late than not to attend at all that day. Getting into good habits of punctuality is the most important factor.
5 minutes late each day equals 3 days lost!
10 minutes late each day equals 6.5 days lost!
15 minutes late each day equals 10 days lost!
Helping Good Attendance
As children start school their patterns and routines of school attendance quickly become habits. Poor routines are hard to disestablish further up the school system. A prevention and early intervention programme that helps to establish good habits can underpin the whole of a child’s school career – and potentially their life opportunities. Young children, however, are dependent upon the adults in their life to get them to school regularly and on time. Therefore the focus must be to establish good habits and work closely with parents to improve attendance.
