Attendance | Granard Primary School

At Granard Primary School, we continually focus on the importance of attendance and punctuality to ensure that your child has the best possible start in life. Attendance has a direct link to attainment; there is clear evidence that poor attendance has a very negative impact on children’s learning and progress at school. If a child is not in school regularly they are not fully accessing the curriculum and learning opportunities available to them. Children are required to attend school for 190 days each year. There are 175 days for holidays and other activities. We expect attendance rates to be 95% and above.

Attending school every day equates to 100% attendance.

Attendance during 1 year	Days lost	This equates to
95% attendance	9 Days	nearly 2 weeks
90% attendance	19 days	nearly 4 weeks
85% attendance	29 days	nearly 6 week
80% attendance	38 days	nearly 8 weeks
75% attendance	48 days	nearly 10 weeks
70% attendance	57 days	nearly 11.5 weeks
65% attendance	67 days	nearly 13.5 weeks

We believe that ‘Every Minute Counts! When a child arrives late at school, they miss teacher instructions and lesson time; and their learning begins to suffer. Children also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late. The table below shows how frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning being lost. This can seriously disadvantage children and disrupt the learning of others. Please help your children to be punctual.

Minutes Late	Learning days lost per year
5 minutes	3 days
10 minutes	6.5 days
15 minutes	10 days
20 minutes	13 days
30 minutes	19 days

				19 Days Lost



			13 Days Lost

		10 Days Lost


	6.5 Days Lost

3 Days Lost
5 Minutes Late	10 Minutes Late	15 Minutes Late	20 Minutes Late	30 Minutes Late

To reward good Attendance

To encourage and reward good attendance, at the end of each half term a draw will take for all pupils who have achieved 100% during that half term. The draw will take place in the final assembly of each half term and the name drawn will win a £10 Argos voucher.

At the end of the academic year a draw will take place for a bicycle. Every half term the children can earn a silver leaf for 95% attendance or over, or a gold leaf for 100% attendance, to stick onto our ‘Attendance Tree’. Every time children stick a leaf on the tree their name will be entered into the draw. This means if a child’s attendance stays above 95% throughout the year their name will be entered into the draw a total of 6 times and they may be the lucky winner of a brand new bicycle or scooter in the summer term.