West Moors Middle is committed to providing an education of the highest quality for all its pupils and recognises this can only be achieved by supporting and promoting excellent school attendance for all its pupils. This is based on the belief that only by attending school regularly and punctually will pupils be able to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. High attainment depends on good attendance.
The whole school community – pupils, parents and carers, teaching staff, support staff and school governors – have a responsibility for ensuring good school attendance and have important roles to play. Parents and carers play a key role in ensuring that their child attends school and arrives on time.
To help improve attendance we have introduced a traffic light system to closely monitor absences. .
Every two weeks, pupils’ attendance will be monitored and put into one of three categories:
Red Attendance: Below 90%
Amber Attendance: 95 – 90%
Green Attendance: Above 95%
Parents and pupils will be informed if attendance falls into amber or red categories. The school works alongside local authority attendance officers where there attendance issues. More detailed information is available on the policies web page.
Tutor group attendance will be classified according to this traffic light system and displayed in school. Pupils will also be able to follow their own progress in bi-weekly assemblies, where pupils will be rewarded for improved or sustained attendance.
- 90% attendance may sound good. However, this is the equivalent of missing a half day of schooling EACH WEEK. If this continues over the five years a child spends at high school, a child with 90% attendance will miss HALF A YEAR’S schooling. A child with 80% attendance will lose A FULL YEAR of schooling over the same period.
- Taking your child out of school for a two week holiday during term time immediately reduces their attendance to 95% for the year.
- Poor attendance has a direct link to attainment – the more school a child misses, the less likely they are to achieve good exam grades.