What is your % attendance? We asked our students ‘What is your attendance’? Do you know in % terms – highly unlikely Do you think it’s good, ok or poor – only those who had no time off knew it was good, the remainder guessed it was good but didn’t have a clue We asked our students what their attendance target was – again some guessed We realised in order to raise the profile of attendance we had to enable students to take ownership of their attendance So we started by showing them something they could relate to And what does it mean? 1

Let’s look at this another way…. When you achieve 90% in a test most parents and students think that this is good BUT, what does 90% attendance look like and what does it mean? Lets have a look at an example...90% 90% in most things sounds good. In a test 90% or 9 out of 10 is pretty good. Well it is in a test...EASY TO CATCH UP - LEARN THAT ONE THING you got wrong.... But if you think 90% in terms of attendance is 10% of school being missed, one tenth. How does that affect your learning? Is it that easy to CATCH UP then? Let’s have a look at 90% of school time..... 2

Students with 90% attendance Absent half a day every week This means that they are absent from lessons for the equivalent of one half day every week. Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Talk through it....that’s so not good......” bit of a shock when you see it like that? If your miss a morning that’s 3 lessons – 3 lessons to catch up on AM PM ? Absent half a day every week 3

? four whole weeks Sept July Absent for 4 weeks! 90% attendance means that a student has missed the equivalent of four whole weeks of lessons in the school year. 38 school weeks Sept July Whaattt????? A month out of the year???? ? Absent for 4 weeks! 4

Half a year absent from school If a student has 90% attendance continually throughout their time at school, over 5 years they will miss the equivalent of about one half of a school year July Sept My Goodness..............I rest my case Half a year absent from school Y7 Y8 Y9 Y10 Y11 5

190 days in school & 175 days holidays Expectations A year is 365 DAYS made up of... 190 days in school & 175 days holidays In an ideal world we would like to see … you all in school for 190 days realistically we expect you to be in school for at least 180 days Why is this? What were our expectations – read through slide

190 175 DAYS HOLIDAY A YEAR!!! Great Worrying Serious Concern 100% 95% .....For family time, friends, visits, holidays, shopping, appointments....which leaves… 190 School days in each year 10 days absence 19 days absence 29 days absence 38 days absence 47 days absence 180 days of Education 171 161 152 143 100% 95% 90% 85% 80% 75% Great Best chance of success Gets you off to a flying start Worrying Less chance of success Makes it harder for you to make progress Serious Concern Not fair on YOU. May result in court action against you! This slide explains why If you attend school for between 180-190 days you will have the best chance of achieving your full potential. As your attendance falls so your chance of success falls So, you need to be in school to succeed (– let’s be fair here, you do get 175 days holiday a year! )