Attendance

At Godalming Junior School we believe that high levels of attendance contributes significantly to the success of children, not only academically but socially and emotionally too. We endeavour to foster a sense of belonging at the school, promoting wellbeing with a strong and supportive pastoral presence.

Parents must make sure their child is regularly attending school as stated in section 7 and section 444 (1) of the Education Act (1996)

Even though the legal responsibility lies with the parents, GJS have a responsibility to manage and improve attendance. The DfE expects us to:

  • Develop and maintain a whole-school culture that promotes high attendance 
  • Have clear attendance policy, processes and systems which staff, pupils and parents understand
  • Accurately complete admission and attendance records
  • Have effective day-to-day processes in place to follow up on absences and maintain high levels of communication between home and school
  • Regularly monitor and analyse attendance data to identify pupils or groups that require extra support, and put strategies in place to support their attendance by the school Attendance Team
  • Build strong relationships with families to understand and remove barriers to attendance and prevent problems from becoming entrenched 
  • Share information and work collaboratively with other schools, your LA and other safeguarding partners to support attendance
We pride ourselves on our relationships between home, school and the local authority to ensure levels of attendance at Godalming Junior School are consistently higher than similar, local and national averages. Both the school Attendance Lead (the headteacher) and Deputy Attendance Lead (HSLW) meet with local authority representatives termly to review the school's methods in monitoring levels of attendance and provide support for families who need it most. We promote a safe, welcoming 'support first' school environment for pupils that celebrates and rewards good behaviour and high and improved attendance.
 
Godalming Junior School has a robust Attendance Policy, informed by DfE guidance paper Working Together to Improve School Attendance (2024) which is reviewed annually and is found below. We also have a number of systems in place that keeps attendance at GJS a high priority area and one that has a high profile in the school.
 
To encourage high levels of attendance at GJS we:
  • Celebrate high levels of attendance and publish 'best class' awards in our weekly newsletters
  • Share 'Every Day Counts' termly attendance data with parents, see below
  • Share attendance information at termly Parent-Teacher Meetings if levels of attendance drop below 90%
  • Share the attendance ambition with parents that at GJS we aim for at least 95% attendance - since 2015 our levels of attendance across the school has consistently been 97%
  • Send letters to all parents each term reminding them of our stance on attendance and 'highlights' of the school policy, such as references to term time absence requests and exceptional circumstances definitions
  • Arrange meetings between the school attendance leads and parents if the levels of absence become a concern
  • Encourage wider engagement with school via enrichment and extra-curricular activities that are accessible to all pupils, as well as academic support such as curriculum catch-up sessions and homework clubs
  • Teach the children healthy habits and communication skills to enable them to deal with a variety of situations and provide a predictable environment in which they can thrive.
  • Have simple but robust attendance systems and processes to enable us to track, follow up and tackle absence by supporting families quickly and effectively
  • Have clear escalation procedures found with the school Attendance Policy