Attendance Mission Statement
Attendance is the essential foundation to positive outcomes for all learners and is therefore seen as everyone’s responsibility in school. Mapenane School of Specialization seeks to ensure that all of our learners receive an education which maximises their opportunities and enables them to achieve their full academic potential. There is much clear evidence that demonstrates a strong link between good academic attainment and good attendance at school, therefore, good attendance and punctuality are a priority within the ethos of this school. The school will provide a welcoming and caring environment whereby each member of the school community feels wanted and secure. All educators will work with learners and their families to ensure that each learners attends school regularly and punctually. The school will establish an effective system to monitor and track attendance and punctuality. It will also implement an effective system of incentives and rewards which acknowledges the efforts of learners to improve their levels of attendance and punctuality and recognises consistently high levels of both. The school will challenge the behaviour of both learners and their families who give low priority to attendance and punctuality. Some pupils find it harder than others to attend school and therefore at all stages of improving attendance, schools and partners will work with pupils and parents to remove any barriers to attendance by building strong and trusting relationships and working together to put the right support in place. Improving school attendance will be a concerted effort across all teaching and nonteaching staff in school, the trust or governing body, the local authority, and other local partners.
Improving attendance is everyone’s business. The barriers to accessing education are wide and
complex, both within and beyond the school gates, and are often specific to individual pupils and
families. The foundation of securing good attendance is that school is a calm, orderly, safe, and
supportive environment where all pupils want to be and are keen and ready to learn. To provide a clear and supportive framework of expectations and procedures that encourages and builds good and sustainable habits of regular school attendance and punctuality to school and all lessons.
Mapenane School of Specialization is committed to supporting all learners towards achieving high levels of
attendance and punctuality based on the following principles:
- The legal obligation of parents/carers to ensure that their children attend school
regularly and punctually. - The legal obligation of the school to record, monitor and report back on attendance.
- Educational research which shows that there is a strong link between attendance and attainment.
- The sharing of a positive ethos regarding attendance and punctuality with all students, including those for whom regular attendance is problematic.
- The system for identifying and addressing concerns about attendance and punctuality will be used swiftly and effectively, in co-operation with parents/carers and their children, in an attempt to resolve attendance and punctuality issues.
- To recognise and reward our best attenders.
- Key support staff in the school will work within an ethos of multi-agency cooperation to guide and support students and their parents/carers who are experiencing difficulties relating to attendance and punctuality.
- The school strongly discourages the taking of any leave during term time, except in exceptional circumstances that are agreed by the school families must apply in advance and permission is not automatic.
Mapenane School of Specialization will consistently promote the benefits of good attendance, set high expectations for every learner, communicate those expectations clearly and consistently to pupils
and parents, systematically analyse our data to identify patterns to target their improvement
efforts, and work effectively with the local authority and other local partners to overcome barriers to attendance.
Punctuality to School
- All leaners must be in school on time, Arriving Time is 07h15
- Morning registration – Any learner who arrives after the start of school will be marked
as late. - Afternoon Registration is the register taken for Lesson 5 at 1:40pm (except for on Friday
when afternoon registration will be taken at 12:00pm in period 4). - Any learners who arrives after 1:40pm will be marked as late.
- If a learner arrives after their lesson starting time with a genuine reason, they must
bring a note from home to confirm this.