Attendance

Attendance and punctuality are key school priorities at Woodlands Primary School

At Woodlands, attendance and punctuality are among our highest school priorities. We know that for our children to flourish, they need to be present to experience the full richness of our Million Dreams curriculum. Every single day at school provides our children with the opportunity to Learn, Thrive and Play and we want to ensure none of our children miss out on these foundational moments.

It is vital that our families understand regular attendance is the key to academic and social progress. When children are frequently absent or late, they simply do not make the progress they should, both academically and socially.

At Woodlands, the expectation is that every child will have greater than 96% attendance.

Starting the school day on time

Here are our start times:

In the morning, we provide a ten-minute window between 8:40 am and 8:50 am dedicated to banded reading. This session supports reading, which underpins their ability to access the entire curriculum. To ensure no child falls behind, those arriving after 8:50 am will have a dedicated reading session rescheduled during their break or lunchtime. We believe so strongly in the importance of these skills that we proactively protect this learning time; this is not a punishment, but rather valuable protected time to guarantee they do not lose those vital literacy foundations.

Committed to reducing absence

We work in partnership with our families to remove barriers to learning. While we understand children occasionally feel under the weather, they often perk up once they are with their friends and our caring staff. To support this, our Attendance Ambassadors provide wellness kits and extra care. If you are unsure whether your child is well enough for school, please visit the NHS website Is my child too ill for school? Please be aware that, because every learning moment is precious, and in line with Section 444 of the Education Act and DfE guidelines, we cannot authorise absences for holidays or family events like weddings. To support our community, we monitor attendance closely. If a child is absent during dates previously requested for leave, or if we believe a family is away, we may conduct home visits. In these instances, we ask families to provide evidence (such as medical notes) to help us verify the absence. Our priority is to ensure all our families are well-informed so that we are able to avoid legal sanctions and government-set fines (£160 per parent, per child.)

Please speak to a member of staff if you would like any support with ensuring your child has the best chance of success by attending school every day on time. We have a pastoral manager to support our families. Please click on the documents below to see our attendance processes. 

We are committed to providing an emotionally predictable and engaging environment where our children want to be every day. Remember, missing school is detrimental, creating gaps both academically and socially; therefore, we will continue to work together to give your child the best chance of success by ensuring they are through our gates by 8:40 am, ready to Play, Thrive and Learn.

At Woodlands, the expectation is that every child will have greater than 96% attendance.