Be Your Best! Attendance at Box.

We pride ourselves on all our children aiming to be their best in all areas of school life. One other area that we want to be 'best in,' is attendance. 

Last year (2025-26) our whole school attendance was 96.1%.

As with all areas of school life, including pupil achievement, we want to set ambitious targets for the year ahead and are again setting the high target of 97%. We will also be continuing to monitor the number of ‘broken weeks’ that children are having and are looking to improve this for the forthcoming academic year.

Persistent absence is a key area for us to improve next year. Research shows that great attendance makes a real impact on learning, and so I’d like to thank you in advance for your support with this.

The importance of consistently high attendance: 

'This is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances. The pupils with the highest attainment at the end of key stage 2 and key stage 4 have higher rates of attendance over the key stage compared to those with the lowest attainment. At KS2, pupils not meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths had an overall absence rate of 4.7%, compared to 3.5% among those meeting the expected standard. Moreover, the overall absence rate of pupils not meeting the expected standard was higher than among those meeting the higher standard (4.7% compared to 2.7%). At KS4, pupils not achieving grade 9 to 4 in English and maths had an overall absence rate of 8.8%, compared to 5.2% 9 among those achieving grade 42. The overall absence rate of pupils not achieving grade 9 to 4 was over twice as high as those achieving grade 9 to 5 (8.8% compared to 3.7%).'

Taken from statutory attendance guidance: Working Together to improve school attendance.  

Please do not take offence if we have to have any informal conversations about your child’s attendance or even if we have to go down a more formal route. Ensuring that your children are in school every day enables them to be at their best at Box and helps contribute to their academic and, more importantly, their social and personal development.

Our school attendance policy can be found below and a reminder that we cannot authorise any holiday requests during term time. Please note that, inline with local authority EWO (Education Welfare Officer) advice and inline with the document, Working together to improve school attendance. Where the school has reason to believe that the reason given for absence is not accurate, the school reserves the right to seek further clarification and amend the attendance code in line with statutory guidance.

The school's senior attendance champion is Mr Chappell. It is his responsibility alongside other members of the SLT (Senior Leadership Team) to ensure attendance is as high as possible and to ensure that the right support is put in place when needed. He will be the first line in supporting you with any attendance issues, and identify the right support that is needed. As in previous years, alongside the school office and EWO (Educational Welfare Officer), he monitors attendance data rigorously to ensure that as a school we are proactive in improving attendance. 

Some of the systems detailed in the DFE document are outlined below. In our attendance policy, you will see how this process is used in school to support all families with attendance. 

ABSENCE REQUEST FOR LEAVE DURING TERM TIME
Please read the following important guidance before making a request:

The current law does not give any entitlement to parents/carers to take their children on holiday during term time. Any applications for leave must be in exceptional circumstances and the head teacher must be satisfied that the circumstances warrant the granting of leave. Absence from the school without the headteacher’s permission will be classed as unauthorised absence and may lead to the issuing of a Penalty Notice (fine). 

To support families with their attendance before the summer, a Box attendance offer was developed in June 2026, so that we are very clear on the supportive processes that we offer. See link below.