Attendance

At Blaengwawr we believe that attendance matters, we expect that all children should be in school every day unless they are too ill to do so. Our attendance procedures and policy (see below) are in place to safeguard children and when they do not attend, school is aware of the reason for their absence.

By law parents and carers are required to ensure that their children of compulsory school age are registered at a school and attend regularly. In addition, the United Nations Convention on the The Rights of the Child is fundamental to our effective practice. Article 28 states: Every child has the right to an education. 

Research clearly states that a child's success at school is likely to be affected negatively if their attendance is low. Those children who do not attend school regularly are likely to fall behind their peers in their learning which leads to them underachieving. This happens both with academic work but also their social development and relationships are affected negatively by poor attendance.

We regularly monitor whole school, class and individual attendance in the school office and with our leadership team. When attendance in school falls to a level of concern we will notify parents via a letter or conversation and will work proactively with parents to address any issues. Please remember that as a parent or carer if you are worried about your child's attendance you can make an appointment to speak to their teacher or a member of the leadership team at any point during the academic year. We also report to parents on attendance during our parent-teacher meetings in the autumn and spring term and in our written report at the end of the summer term.

Each of our children will have a letter sent home at the end of each term/start of the following term to inform you of their % of attendance for the year so far. These are then categorised into our attendance bands as follows: 

Green = 95.1% - 100%                 Amber = 90.1% - 95.0%                 Red = 90% and below

This allows you as parents to track their attendance through the year and work with the school on any improvements that need to be made or celebrate their good attendance.

When you read your letter and look at the attendance ladder - are you celebrating or do you need to make improvements to your attendance?

What do our pupils think of when they talk about attendance?

Look at our word art apple that has been made by them...

Celebrating Attendance in School

We celebrate attendance regularly in school by giving certificates for different reasons:

* Class with the highest % of attendance each week

* Class with the most improved attendance over a half term

* Individual pupils who have 100% attendance for a term

* Individual pupils who have 100% attendance for the whole year

We also put the winning class name and % on the front page of our website each Friday!

Punctuality

At Blaengwawr we believe that punctuality is very important as this sets up good routines early in a child's life. If a child is late for school it is a form of absence as they may miss a lesson or the important teaching input at the start of a task. Over time lateness can add up to a significant amount of time as you will see from the image below.

We open both sets of gates from Gwawr Street and Cardiff Road at 8.50am each morning and these will shut at 9am promptly. Reception, Year 1 and 2 will go straight into their classes when they arrive and Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 will line up in the yard and go into their classes by 8.55am each morning.

After 9am children should all come via the school office and we have a book that all parents/carers need to sign if they are late coming into school and provide a reason to our clerk. Older children should not be arriving in school unaccompanied after 9am as a parent/carer needs to sign them in.