Attendance

ATTENDANCE at BREWOOD

Children attending school every day is vital in helping to ensure they reach their full potential. Aside from the fact that we love seeing your children every day, by attending regularly they are experiencing a broad and balanced curriculum, a wide range of learning opportunities and building their self-esteem. Regular school attendance can also facilitate peer relationships, which is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing.

We work hard at Brewood CE Middle Academy to promote good attendance and are delighted that at the end of each term we are able to celebrate with pupils who have achieved 100% attendance. Pupils who achieve 100% throughout that year are rewarded and celebrated at our end of year Church Service.

We realise that sometimes our pupils are too poorly to attend school and we therefore ask parents to inform the school office as soon as possible to explain why their child will not be in school on that day. We have a dedicated absence line for this purpose: 01902 850266 option 1. If you are unsure if you should keep your child off school, please see the link to the advisory poster on our home page. If in doubt, please call the school office for further advice.

Absence from school is discouraged however if parents are considering taking their child out of school during the term time, we ask them to put a request in writing to the Executive Principal for consideration. In line with the latest guidance from the DfE (School Attendance, 2016) the decision whether or not to grant permission for a leave of absence for a holiday is entirely at the Executive Principal’s discretion and can only be granted in exceptional circumstances, it is not an automatic entitlement. If the request is not received before the holiday is taken, permission will not be granted retrospectively.

Following the pandemic, we recognise that some children have become anxious about attending school. Please speak to us as soon as possible so that we can out prompt support in place.

Percentage attendance

Missed in a year

Missed in 4 years at school

97%

6 days

1 week 1 day

30 lessons

24 days

4 weeks

120 lessons

95%

10 days

2 weeks

50 lessons

40 days

8 weeks

200 lessons

90%

20 days

4 weeks

100 lessons

80 days

16 weeks

400 lessons

85%

30 days

6 weeks

150 lessons

120 days

24 weeks (more than ½ a school year)

600 lessons

80%

39 days

7 weeks 4 days

195 lessons

156 days

31.2 weeks (more than ¾ of a school year)

780 lessons

PUNCTUALITY

Arriving at school on time is very important. We ask you to support us by adhering to the times for the start of the school day, as published in our attendance policy. The policy states ‘Parents are asked to ensure their children are punctual to the academy to ensure that they are in registration at 8:45am. Pupils must be on site no later than 8:40am.’

Pupils who are persistently late for school are regularly missing key learning as our first lesson of the day begins at 9am.

Every Minute Counts
5 minutes late each day	3 days missed in a year
10 minutes late each day	6.5 days missed in a year
15 minutes late each day	10 days missed in a year
20 minutes late each day	13 days missed in a year
30 minutes late each day	19 days missed in a year

The Link between attendance and attainment is clear:

In 2018 / 19, just 40% of persistently absent children (attendance below 90%) in KS2 achieved expected outcomes in their SATs, compared with 84% of pupils who were regular attenders