Carers, It has been a fantastic ...

13th September 2017 Dear Parents/Carers, It has been a fantastic start to the school year and we are looking forward to celebrating the recent OFSTED and examination results at our Open Evening. During the evening I will be sharing with prospective parents our expectations in terms of standards. Whilst I have been very pleased with the uniform standards of the vast majority of pupils we do have a number of pupils wearing incorrect uniform. I would ask that any issues are corrected as soon as possible. Examples of the issues include trainers instead of leather school shoes and leggings instead of school trousers. On another note, during the first 7 days of term, I have received 8 holiday requests already. Following a 6 week holiday period I have been surprised by the number of requests. As you are aware I am unable to authorise such absences unless there are exceptional circumstances. Government guidelines are clear in explaining the potential impact of pupils missing school. However, I sometimes feel this message does not resonate with some parents in the way that it could. With this in mind we have been analysing data for our pupils and the GCSE grades they achieve at the end of year 11. The findings are stark and highlight that pupils missing school is a very good indicator of lowered performance. If we look at last year's year 11 group. Their overall achievement was excellent. They have the best results in the school's history. However, when we break down achievement by attendance band, some interesting points are revealed. Where pupils have 95% attendance or more their average Progress score for their time at SHS is about 0.5. This means they achieve half a grade higher per GCSE than similar ability pupils nationally. Where pupils have between 90 and 95% attendance they achieved a progress score of 0.16 which was above average but well below those with higher attendance. Where attendance is between 80% and 90% pupils achieved a progress score of -0.1. This means they did not make as much progress as pupils of similar ability nationally. Where pupils have below 80% attendance they achieved -0.61 progress overall. This is a dramatic impact on outcomes for pupils. I am not suggesting that all of the achievement issues are wrapped up in attendance alone. However, as an indicator of performance at GCSE, I do not think you could get a more stark picture of the potential impact of your child not being in school. A child who has 10 days off through an academic year will fall below the 95% threshold. If a child has 3.5 days off per half term they will fall below the 90%. When pupils are in school we can teach them and support them and ensure they do not miss key parts of the concepts or curriculum. I hope that in presenting information in this way it offers an insight into why attendance at school is so important. Yours sincerely,

Mr L Gray Headteacher

Studley High School Crooks Lane, Studley, Warwickshire, B80 7QX  01527 852478  [email protected]  www.studleyhighschool.org.uk Headteacher: Mr L Gray (PGCE, MSc) Studley High School is an exempt charity. It is a company limited by guarantee - registered in England No. 7610791