At Harwell School, our vision for your child is to help them develop a love of learning, along with the skills and the ways of thinking to excel at whatever they choose to do in the future.
With parent help and support, we can ensure that we are doing our best for all the children at Harwell School.
Every day counts at school. Regular school attendance is an important part of raising standards and of children achieving more. Research has shown that consistent high attendance, and good punctuality, are crucial factors in pupils achieving their full potential.
Attendance details for all parents – September 2022 .doc
Attendance – Guidance for Families September 2022
Blanket penalty notice letter September 2022
Attendance Facts:
- If your child attends school 100% of the time they will be able to make the best of the opportunities available to them.
- Children who attend school more than 95% of the time are more likely to gain 5+ good GCSEs or equivalent.
- A child who has 90% attendance across their entire schooling will have missed one year’s education! This makes it harder for a pupil to make progress and have success.
Our target attendance rate as a school and for each pupil is at least 97% of the year.
At Harwell School, we recognise good attendance. Prior to Covid, these were the ways in which we were working to encourage better attendance and improve attendance which will in turn positively impact on the learning at school. These are currently suspended.
- Attendance owls – each week, the class in KS1 and KS2 respectively with the best attendance rate wins the coveted class attendance owl to keep in their class for a week
- Any class with 100% attendance receives an extra 10 minutes of supervised playtime one morning in the following week
- Attendance badges awarded at the end of each full term to all pupils achieving (and in many cases exceeding) the attendance target of 97%
We would encourage all our parents to read the school Attendance Policy which is based on the OCC policy Harwell School Attendance policy
We monitor attendance closely and work with families to improve attendance. Children, who have persistently poor attendance and low parental engagement, may sadly force the school to refer parents the county council attendance team.
Thank you for your continued help and support. Some reminders:
- please call the school to leave a message on the absence line or send an email to office.2563@harwell.oxon.sch.uk
- If your child is late, you need to come into school to let us know the reason
- Registers are taken at the start of the school day at 8.55 am. Lateness 30 minutes after the start of registration is counted as an unauthorised absence unless there is an acceptable reason
- Medical appointments should be made out of school hours where possible. If an appointment is in the afternoon, your child should attend school for the morning and for the afternoon if the appointment was for the morning
We also have policies and procedures for those children with long term medical conditions which may affect their attendance.
Harwell School Supporting Children with Medical Conditions
Parents may find these links useful:
A Parents Guide to Managing Sickness
