Attendance

Good attendance to school has always led to better academic outcomes and life-chances for students. However, good attendance also impacts positively on mental health and well-being. The importance of structure, routine and social contact cannot be underestimated and attending school everyday is key to developing positive relationships, improving confidence, resilience and well-being, especially for young people.

Good attendance at The Radcliffe School is defined as being above 98%. “Every lesson counts” towards that percentage and whilst we acknowledge that students can be ill and unable to come into school, any day lost to absence can impact on student confidence as they feel they have fallen behind or have missed work and can struggle to re-engage with learning and even with their friends.

The Radcliffe School supports a culture of good attendance and supports parents and students in identifying and overcoming barriers to good attendance. As you can see from the illustration below, one day can have a huge impact on a student’s attendance……

1 day of absence in a year = 99.48%
1 day of absence each term = 98.4%
1 day of absence each half term = 96.8%
1 day of absence each month = 94.3%
1 day of absence each week = 80%

As a school, we are committed to meeting our obligation with regards to school attendance through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:

• Promoting and rewarding good attendance.

• Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence.

• Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled.

• Acting early to address patterns of absence.

• Building strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support in place to attend school.

• Promote and support punctuality in attending lessons.

We expect every pupil to attend every session unless there is a legitimate reason for absence. It is very important therefore that parents perform their legal duty by ensuring that their child attends regularly. Our Attendance and Punctuality Policy sets out how together we will achieve this.

If you have any questions regarding your child’s school attendance there are many members of staff at The Radcliffe School who are here to offer help, support and guidance. As always, the first point of contact is your child’s Form Tutor, alternatively please make contact with our Pastoral Teams;