Good attendance at school is not just beneficial, it’s essential. Attending school is directly linked to improved attainment (exam performance) as well as helping to develop friendships, social skills, team values and life skills. 

If a child is absent for 3 days in a half term, that means that there attendance is 90%. 

Achieving 90% in a test is a fantastic result but if your child is at school for only 90% of the school year then they will have missed 19 days - almost four whole weeks of school!

That is around 120 hours of learning... in a year.  And 120 hours is equivalent to the amount of time a Year 10 and 11 spends in school studying one full-time GCSE (normally taken over two years).

And 90% attendance over a child's whole school life (Reception -> Year 13) is 266 days missed - almost a year and a half of school! 

At Pirton Hill we expect children to attend school every day, unless there is a good reason (e.g. illness).  

Rewarding good attendance:

• In addition to all that the children gain from being in school every day, we also have the following attendance rewards. 
• Each week, the children with 100% attendance (for that week) are placed in a prize draw - which is definitely the most exciting part of our Wednesday assembly each week.  
• On a Friday, the classes with the highest attendance (KS1 and KS2) are awarded the Attendance Trophy to keep for the week. And, if a whole class has achieved 100% attendance for the week, they also get a chocolately treat! 
• And, at the end of each term, children who's attendance is over 98% get to choose 2 small prizes from the Attendance Prize Box! And children with attendance between 97-98% get to choose 1 small prize.

Please remember that a child is recorded as absent (because they are not in school) even if they have a 'good reason'. To achieve 100% attendance, a child must be in school.

Obviously, children with low attendance, will not be selected to represent the school at external festivals / competitions.