Head teacher blog January 6th 2017

Happy new year!

It is great to be back at school: this is a key term for learning and progress as the children are all well settled in their classes, their teachers know them well and we have a complete term without distractions such as Christmas or SATs. I have visited each classroom this week: engagement is very high and the atmosphere around school is very positive. I am looking forward to a very successful term.

The only disappointment this week has been the absence of a couple of children all week who already have poor attendance (and have done for many years). It is very clear that attendance needs to be consistently high (well over 90%, and usually more than 95%) for children to reach their potential and it is very difficult for school to have a coherent learning plan for children who are regularly late, frequently miss the odd day or disappear for a week. Attendance across the school as a whole is good – over 96% –  but there is a clear link between those children with the lowest attendance and poor educational progress. It is very frustrating.