Attendance

Good attendance is vital to ensure that our children are able to thrive in all aspects of both their social and emotional development and their academic achievements.

At Woodlands, we aim for all children to be in school, on time every day. We do appreciate that sometimes children are unwell and there are unavoidable absences. Where your child is unwell, please see our illness guide for advice. Our Academy target is 96% and we work hard with our families to ensure this is met. 

Why is attendance important?

Every day that children spend away from school has a significant impact on their academic progress. Missed learning opportunities quickly add up and can result in a huge amount of catch up needed across a number of subject areas.

Our Attendance Policy can be found here

If your child is not in school, please ensure you have rung the school office (0161 3595698) before 9am. 

We need you to contact school each day your child is absent.

If you do not inform us of your child's absence, we will contact you to discuss your child's reason for absence.

If your child is part of a safeguarding plan, even if we do know the reason for their absence, we will complete a home visit on the first day.

If your child is NOT part of a safeguarding plan, then we will carry out a home visit on day 3 of their absence even if you have contacted us prior.

If your child continues to be absent, we will carry out a home visit on day 6, day 9, day 12 etc. even if you have called us and we know the reason for absence. This is to ensure we carry out our statutory safeguarding duty.

If your child is unwell, please see advice and guidance on when to keep them away from school here

Punctuality 

School starts at 9.00am 

If your child is in school and on time, they will receive a stamp in their attendance passport.  These can be spent at the attendance shop every week or they can choose to save them for a bigger prize.

If your child is late for school, you must accompany them to the main entrance and sign them in to the building where you will be asked to complete a late form. Persistent failure to do this will result in a meeting with the attendance officer and/or Designated Safeguarding Lead.

If your child's punctuality is a concern, you will be invited to have a meeting with a member of the attendance team to discuss proactive ideas and solutions to ensure things improve.

The Woodlands Attendance Ladder

To ensure all parents, carers and children are aware of the impact of absence on their overall attendance, the Woodlands Attendance Ladder will be used as a visual aid to support this. This ladder will be used around the academy building, & on attendance newsletters.  All staff will refer to the Woodlands attendance ladder when talking about attendance with any stakeholder and when helping them to understand where their attendance sits on it.

Working Together to Improve Attendance

At Woodlands we know that the best way to improve a child's attendance is when parents and school leaders work together. See below our staged approach to supporting you as parents/carers to improve your child's attendance

DfE - Working Together to Improve School Attendance

Letter to parents - September 2024

How do we promote good attendance?

Our free breakfast club is available to all families from 8.15 each day.

Mrs Hall is our Attendance Officer and she works closely with families to promote good attendance 

Mrs Grant, our Learning Mentor, works with families to support with routines, behaviour management.

Our Classopoly is very popular with children in school. Whole class attendance is tracked weekly and classes with 95% or above get to roll a dice and move their count on the Classopoly Board, winning class prizes such as non-uniform days, extra playtimes and whole class treats. If you have any questions or worries about your child's attendance, or need additional support to get your children here on time, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Hall in the main school office or Miss Allen and they will be happy to help.