SEAGRAVE PRIMARY SCHOOL
DSA Attendance Newsletter 3
Djanogly Strelley Academy Helston Drive, Strelley, Nottingham, NG8 6JZ (t): 0115 8845913 (f): 0115 8845915 (e): [email protected] (w): www.djanoglystrelleyacademy.co.uk Head of School: Mr Tim Jeffs Ambition
Inspiration
Achievement
Resilience
Partnership
1st July 2015
Attendance Update 2015 – 2016 “Attendance - Every minute counts” “Attendance - Every hour counts” “Attendance - Every day counts” WHY ATTENDANCE IS SO IMPORTANT Attending school on a regular basis and on time is the key to your child doing well at school and will set them up with good habits for later life and the working world. Even having attendance of 90% will mean that a child has missed 19 school days over the year – as a result they will struggle to reach their targets. Children who are in school and on time every day do better than those who are not. It will also give your child the opportunity to: Make lots of friends and feel included Learn new things and develop many skills Increase confidence and self esteem Improve social skills Achieve their potential and fulfil aspirations If your child regularly arrives late or you take your child out of school for a family holiday or even a regular check-up, this will mean that they can be left behind with their work.
Attendance improves attainment – so increases life chances HOLIDAYS DURING SCHOOL TIME In line with Government and Local Authority Guidelines – holidays in school time will not be authorised. Taking a holiday during school time can have a significant impact on pupils learning, progress and attainment. They will miss large amounts of school work and will not be able to make up for this missed learning as teachers will need to move onto the next learning objective. ATTENDANCE POLICY We have recently reviewed our attendance policy and will be sending a copy of this out to all families in September. One of the main changes in the policy is that HOLIDAYS DURING TERM TIME WILL NO LONGER BE AUTHORISED – this is in line with government guidelines. We will also be serving a Penalty Notice (fine) on parents of pupils who are consistently late and who are missing large amounts of learning time. We will also be taking to court parents of pupils who have high levels of absence from school (where there are not exceptional circumstances). The main reason for this stronger stance is that we want our pupils to do better and achieve more at school. Pupils who are in school and on time everyday do better than those who are not.
Djanogly Strelley Academy
DSA Attendance Newsletter 3
Ambition
Inspiration
Achievement
Resilience
Partnership
OUR TARGETS AND EXPECTATIONS Nationally the DfE want schools to exceed 96% attendance. This year we have only been able to achieve 94.1% attendance. This level of attendance puts us in the bottom 20% of schools across the country. Ofsted says - “Schools in the bottom 10% attendance nationally are unlikely to be judged GOOD.” As a new school, DSA expect to be inspected by Ofsted in the coming year and want to reduce our levels of absenteeism. We plan to get DSA above the 96% attendance expectation by September 2017 and therefore want the help of every parent over the coming months. We must first get to 95% as quickly as possible. Please get children to school every day on time and ready for learning. Please be aware that this year DSA will now be issuing Penalty Notices for persistent lateness as well as unauthorised holiday during term time. NEXT YEAR We have rewritten our attendance plan, setting out targets and highlighting to staff and parents our key approach to achieving the national standards for attendance: Early identification of pupils struggling to attend Staff team engaged in contacting and discussing attendance with parents Drawing on Attendance Improvement Officers and Education Welfare Officers’ support Processing persistent lateness and absence to issue Penalty Notices We will be giving a variety of rewards to classes, pupils and parents who manage 100% attendance and those that show the most improvement in their attendance. The draws will be held termly. Below is a guide to how we view a pupil’s attendance figure.
Attendance 97% – 100% 95% – 96.9% 93% – 94.9% 90% – 92.9% 90% & Below
Judgement Very Good Expected Risk Needs Attention Serious Concern
Days off in a year 6 days or less 5-10 days off 11-13 days off 14-19 days off 20 days and over
Weeks off a year 1 week 1-2 weeks 2-3 weeks 3-4 weeks 0ver 4 weeks
We will also be updating you more regularly on your child’s attendance levels. So please, this year, really work at getting the children into school every day and on time. Many thanks
Mr T. P. Jeffs Head of School
Djanogly Strelley Academy Helston Drive, Strelley, Nottingham, NG8 6JZ (t): 0115 8845913 (f): 0115 8845915 (e): [email protected] (w): www.djanoglystrelleyacademy.co.uk Head of School: Mr Tim Jeffs Ambition
Inspiration
Achievement
Resilience
Partnership
1st July 2015
Attendance Update 2015 – 2016 “Attendance - Every minute counts” “Attendance - Every hour counts” “Attendance - Every day counts” WHY ATTENDANCE IS SO IMPORTANT Attending school on a regular basis and on time is the key to your child doing well at school and will set them up with good habits for later life and the working world. Even having attendance of 90% will mean that a child has missed 19 school days over the year – as a result they will struggle to reach their targets. Children who are in school and on time every day do better than those who are not. It will also give your child the opportunity to: Make lots of friends and feel included Learn new things and develop many skills Increase confidence and self esteem Improve social skills Achieve their potential and fulfil aspirations If your child regularly arrives late or you take your child out of school for a family holiday or even a regular check-up, this will mean that they can be left behind with their work.
Attendance improves attainment – so increases life chances HOLIDAYS DURING SCHOOL TIME In line with Government and Local Authority Guidelines – holidays in school time will not be authorised. Taking a holiday during school time can have a significant impact on pupils learning, progress and attainment. They will miss large amounts of school work and will not be able to make up for this missed learning as teachers will need to move onto the next learning objective. ATTENDANCE POLICY We have recently reviewed our attendance policy and will be sending a copy of this out to all families in September. One of the main changes in the policy is that HOLIDAYS DURING TERM TIME WILL NO LONGER BE AUTHORISED – this is in line with government guidelines. We will also be serving a Penalty Notice (fine) on parents of pupils who are consistently late and who are missing large amounts of learning time. We will also be taking to court parents of pupils who have high levels of absence from school (where there are not exceptional circumstances). The main reason for this stronger stance is that we want our pupils to do better and achieve more at school. Pupils who are in school and on time everyday do better than those who are not.
Djanogly Strelley Academy
DSA Attendance Newsletter 3
Ambition
Inspiration
Achievement
Resilience
Partnership
OUR TARGETS AND EXPECTATIONS Nationally the DfE want schools to exceed 96% attendance. This year we have only been able to achieve 94.1% attendance. This level of attendance puts us in the bottom 20% of schools across the country. Ofsted says - “Schools in the bottom 10% attendance nationally are unlikely to be judged GOOD.” As a new school, DSA expect to be inspected by Ofsted in the coming year and want to reduce our levels of absenteeism. We plan to get DSA above the 96% attendance expectation by September 2017 and therefore want the help of every parent over the coming months. We must first get to 95% as quickly as possible. Please get children to school every day on time and ready for learning. Please be aware that this year DSA will now be issuing Penalty Notices for persistent lateness as well as unauthorised holiday during term time. NEXT YEAR We have rewritten our attendance plan, setting out targets and highlighting to staff and parents our key approach to achieving the national standards for attendance: Early identification of pupils struggling to attend Staff team engaged in contacting and discussing attendance with parents Drawing on Attendance Improvement Officers and Education Welfare Officers’ support Processing persistent lateness and absence to issue Penalty Notices We will be giving a variety of rewards to classes, pupils and parents who manage 100% attendance and those that show the most improvement in their attendance. The draws will be held termly. Below is a guide to how we view a pupil’s attendance figure.
Attendance 97% – 100% 95% – 96.9% 93% – 94.9% 90% – 92.9% 90% & Below
Judgement Very Good Expected Risk Needs Attention Serious Concern
Days off in a year 6 days or less 5-10 days off 11-13 days off 14-19 days off 20 days and over
Weeks off a year 1 week 1-2 weeks 2-3 weeks 3-4 weeks 0ver 4 weeks
We will also be updating you more regularly on your child’s attendance levels. So please, this year, really work at getting the children into school every day and on time. Many thanks
Mr T. P. Jeffs Head of School
