SpringwellAttendance
At Springwell, we strive for outstanding attendance and our whole school attendance target for 2023 – 2024 is 94%. This level of attendance will ensure that every child has the best chance to reach their full potential.
Good school attendance is crucial to your child’s progress and achievement and we continue to work closely with our parents and carers to support and improve both attendance and punctuality.
Remember: S.A.M - School Attendance Matters!
Why does attendance and punctuality matter?
Attending school on a regular basis is the key to your child doing well at school. There is a clear link between attendance and pupil achievement.
Good attendance and punctuality are essential if you want your child to:
- Make lots of friends and feel included
- Learn new things and develop many skills
- Increase their confidence and self-esteem
- Improve their social and
communication skills
- Make good progress and achieve their full potential
What we would like Parents/Carers to do to support us:
*Contact the school promptly to report an absence
Please phone school between 8.00am-9.00am to let us know the reason why your child will not be attending school or report any absence your ParentMail app.
*Where possible make medical and dental appointments outside of school hours
Where possible please do not arrange non-emergency doctors, medical or dental appointments during school hours.
*Please ensure your child arrives at school on time each day
If your child is educated on main-site please make sure they arrive at school by 9:00am. Pupils on main-site who arrive between 9:10 and 9:30am will be marked as late which can count as an unauthorised absence.
The start of the school day and expected time of arrival for other classes are as follows:
YR children at Startpoint Sholing - 9.00am
Willow Class at Bitterne C of E Primary School - 9.00am
Maple Class at Weston Park Primary School– 9.00am
Packham Class at Mount Pleasant Junior School - 9:00am
If you have any queries or concerns about attendance or punctuality matters or would like us to support you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We look forward to continuing to work with you all to ensure your child’s attendance is the very best it can be to give them the very best chances in school and beyond.
How can we improve our attendance rate?
As parents, you have a legal responsibility to ensure your child attends school regularly. Any child who is absent from a session of school must have their absence recorded as being authorised or unauthorised.
Each year there are 190 school days. This leaves an additional 175 days for holidays, shopping, birthday treats and non-urgent medical and dental appointments. Therefore, the school is very unlikely to authorise absence for any of these reasons.
Where attendance is a concern, we will work closely with parents and our Educational Welfare Officer to give as much support and advice as we can.
Attendance Documents
Springwell's process for supporting pupils to attend school.
| Actions | Outcomes |
|
Ongoing analysis of all pupil attendance and reporting to link Educational Welfare Officer (EWO). |
Identification of patterns and frequency. |
| If a pupil is absent: the same day, Attendance Officer will call parents to ask why the pupil is not in school. | Information finding. |
| If absences continue and/or fall below 90% | |
|
An Attendance Officer will call parents to update on concerns, to offer support and identify what we can do to raise attendance.
If there is a health concern, our Welfare Officer may also call parents. |
Raised parental awareness of levels of absence, impact on education and possible involvement of outside agencies.
Health advice and support. |
| If absences continue and/or fall below 90% | |
| Springwell will request to do a home visit – this would be an Attendance Officer, or a Senior Leader - who work with parents to create action plan. | All parties working together to improve attendance. |
| If absences continue and/or fall below 90% | |
| Involvement of outside agencies and formal meeting in school and referral to EWO. |
Input from increased parties. Possible fixed penalty notice. |
Holidays in term time
Government guidance makes it clear that Head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless it is for exceptional circumstances.
If you are taking your child out of school for any reason other than illness or a medical appointment, a ‘leave of absence form’ must be completed well in advance. The school will consider the reasons for the request carefully and will notify you of the decision within 5 days. The Local Authority may issue a fixed penalty fine to each parent for each child absent when holiday is taken without authorisation.
For more information please see:
Attendance Chart
Our whole school target for attendance is 94%.
From this academic year, we will be sending home a copy of your child’s registration certificate showing their attendance each term so you can easily keep track of their attendance rate.
To support your understanding further, in discussion with the Educational Welfare Service, we have introduced the following guide for parents:
| 100-94% | Excellent - in line or above school target |
| 93-90% | Be aware - Below school target of 94% |
| 89%-85% | Concern (Persistent Absentee) - attendance closely monitored and discussed by school and Educational Welfare Service at meetings each term. The local Authority may issue a penalty notice. |
| 85% and lower | Serious Concern (Persistent Absentee) - referred to Educational Welfare Service. The Local Authority may issue a penalty notice. |
Attendance over one school year:
If a pupil had:
98% attendance = less than 4 days absent from school
95% attendance = less than 10 days absent from school
90% attendance = 4 weeks absent from school
85% attendance = 5 ½ weeks absent from school
80% attendance = 7 ½ weeks absent from school
