Attendance at Branksome Heath Middle School
The DCSF use criteria to assess the attendance of a school. They use the data for Free School Meals in particular to create a Median for our school. Having made this calculation, the DCSF has given our school the challenge of reaching 95.2% attendance. (This figure was based on 2006/07 data and since then our FSM uptake has risen, particularly since hot school meals were introduced).
Since these statistics were used, our school has gone from 7% to 16% FSM in 2009/10 and this year 2011/12 we have 22% FSM. Using the criteria mentioned above this would take our target below that of last year and therefore, having discussed the matter with our EWO and Shirley who monitors attendance, I suggest we go for 95.00 as the target for attendance and hence, 5.00 absence.
Our attendance has been seen to be rising but we still have a tough task to get to the DCSF target. Last year we were hit by the ‘snow’ week dropping our attendance into the 80’s but we still managed an improvement over all.
Each year we have discussed with the Local Authority our Attendance Targets and in the table below it can be seen how we compare against this data:
| |
07/08 |
08/09 |
09/10 |
10/11 |
11/12 |
| Ac tual |
94.05 |
94.16 |
94.05 |
94.62 |
* |
| Target |
94.56 |
94.56 |
94.73 |
94.9 |
95.00 |
*Not all data available as yet.
We strive to get as many children into school every day. Every absent child has home phoned to check the reason for absence. (We have used a text messaging service this year to help this)
We still have a prize each week for 1 child from Years 4 and 5, and 1 child from Years 6 and 7 who has 100% attendance.
We have a class prize at the end of each term for the best attendance. | 
