Attendance and Term Time Absence

Attendance at Bradley Barton - January 2020

At Bradley Barton, many pupils attend school regularly and punctually, but increasing numbers of pupils are becomming persistent absentees (PAs).  This means they miss, on average, one day of school a fortnight or more (less than 90% attendance).  This is of real concern to us, and we will be focusing closely this year on improving these pupils' attendance and making sure as few pupils become PAs as possible.  This graph shows our comparative rates of persistent absenteeism compared to national data across autumn terms.

We are proud of the educational experience children at Bradley Barton receive and passionately believe that school is the right place for your child during term time.  Holiday requests will only be authorised in the most exceptional circumstances - the families of children missing 10 sessions or more of school for holidays will receive fines from the local authority.

You can see that, historically, Bradley Barton has authorised more absence that schools nationally:

We have had to review this in light of our increasing numbers of PAs.  In order to improve our attendance compared to national figures even further, we have worked on our early alert system for families of children - to ensure that you are aware in a clear and timely manner if your child's attendance is in danger of becomming a concern.  Please see our flow chart below of what to expect when your child's attendance dips.

You can see you child's live attendance data any time on the School Gateway app by clicking on your child's name and then "Reporting."

Where possible, in the Autumn term, we will review attendance from the previous year to check that limited data is not skewing attendance figures unfairly.