At Walnut Tree Walk we believe that improving attendance is everyone’s business and that providing a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment where all pupils want to be and are keen and ready to learn is the foundation of securing good attendance.
Working together to put the right support in place at the right time, in conjunction with all staff in school, parents/carers, pupils, Lambeth Council and other local partners, we aim to remove any barriers to attendance by building strong and trusting relationships.
Regular attendance is fundamental to the future success of children. We expect pupils to be in school for every session of the school day and for every day that the school is open.
Our objectives are to promote good attendance, ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled. By acting early to address patterns of absence we aim to reduce absence, including persistent and severe absence.
The school uses Studybugs to closely monitor each child’s attendance and to send messages to parents if ever there are absences that the school are unaware of or to share concerns about attendance levels.
For full details of the steps that the school will take when attendance or punctuality for an individual child is a concern, please see our Attendance Policy:
You can read our Attendance policy here.
The Attendance Lead at Walnut Tree Walk is the headteacher, Andrew Chaplin.
The Attendance Officer is Susan Harrington.
Why good attendance is so important
Impact on attainment
Good attendance very closely correlates with good outcomes. Children who do not attend school regularly fall behind their peers and do not achieve as well as they should, impacting negatively on their life chances. This is evidenced by national, local and our school data.
In March 2025, the DfE published a report ‘The link between attendance and attainment in an assessment year’.
This report found that at primary school, children who attend school nearly every day in Year 6 (95-100% attendance) are 30% more likely to reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths compared to similar pupils who attend 90-95% of the time.
The link is even stronger at secondary school. Year 11 pupils with near-perfect attendance are almost twice as likely to achieve grade 5 in English and Maths GCSE, compared to similar pupils attending 90-95% of the time.
In other words, missing just 10 extra days a year reduces the likelihood of achieving these grades by around 50%.
You can read the government report here.
Wellbeing/ friendships
In addition, children who regularly miss school can experience more difficulties with their confidence and wellbeing, including developing and maintaining friendships.
Sequence of lessons
Lessons are carefully sequenced across a week, meaning that if a child misses a day earlier in the week, they may find it challenging to keep up with the work their peers are doing later in the week.
Lessons start promptly at 9am
Eg. children in KS1 have their daily phonics lesson at 9am. This is a really important lesson as it provides the foundations for children to be able to read fluently.
