At Great Coates Primary School, attendance remains a priority for us all. As it is proven, regular school attendance positively impacts children’s futures.
The national attendance target for all schools is 96%+ for all children. At Great Coates Primary School, we strive for 97%. The government as of August 2024, have issued new updated guidance ‘Working together to improve school attendance’, which sets out the new rules and guidance around improving attendance including changes to the rules around term time holidays.
Please see attached link to the full document: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66bf300da44f1c4c23e5bd1b/Working_together_to_improve_school_attendance_-_August_2024.pdf
In light of this information, here are a few changes to attendance procedures, as well as some reminders:
Attendance rewards
- Each week during assembly, the classes with 100% attendance for the week will be rewarded with a class certificate and treats.
- Each week during assembly the class with the highest overall attendance for the week for both KS1 and KS2 with be able to have the attendance trophy for the week.
- Classes are also working together to achieve a class reward. Each day that a class has 100% attendance, they are rewarded with a golden star outside of their classroom to highlight their achievement.
- Every classroom has lights above their door, this generates competition amongst Great Coates classes.
- Every child whom has good attendance for the term will receive a certificate presented in assembly. This will be accompanied by a prize.
- All children that end the academic year receive a treat for 100% attendance and a certificate.
- X (Twitter) is used for our Attendance Guru Harold @HaroldHERO, Harold shares attendance information, advice and support. He also shares updates throughout the week regarding class and school attendance – Please give him a follow.
Attendance updates
The calculation of attendance for a child can appear confusing at times, when a child is absent from school for ANY reason (even when it’s an authorised reason) this deducts from the child’s overall attendance percentage.
Absence
It’s important if your child cannot attend school, you let us know by phoning the school office 01472 808608 option 1 at the start of the school day before 9am.
If we haven’t heard from you, we will first send you a text message to contact the school and if no contact is made a phone call will be made. If we cannot get hold of you, we may phone other contacts held for the child or conduct a home visit. Therefore, it’s important that we have at least two contact numbers for the child in school and if you make any changes to contact details you inform us with immediate effect.
To improve attendance we must work together, if at any point you require clarification or support regarding your child’s attendance please do contact us. We thank you all for your continued support.
For a more detailed explanation of the systems we follow in order to ensure consistency in our approach to attendance, please refer to our Attendance and Punctuality Procedures.
Attendance and Punctuality Policy
