Moments Matter, Attendance Counts
Improving school attendance is everyone’s business, and to support this challenge, the Department for Education launched a new attendance campaign in January 2024 with the tagline “Moments Matter, Attendance Counts”.
As you know, attendance to school is a key priority for us here at William Penn and we wanted to use this national campaign to remind parents and carers of the importance of attending school regularly: because from the first day of term to the last, every lesson, and each moment, big or small, makes a big difference to a child’s learning and wellbeing as described in the campaign manifesto below:
Moments Matter, Attendance Counts manifesto
“That moment they found a new best friend queuing up for pudding.
That time fractions suddenly clicked.
That day cavemen came to live in the playground.
That science lesson when a mento and cola ‘rocket’ sprayed everywhere.
Breaking a school record on sports day.
When they helped catch the escaped rabbit.
Helping to build props for the school play.
When they baked cupcakes that were actually edible (just).
Performing that encore at the school concert.
From the first day of term to the last, each moment, big or small, makes a
big difference to a child’s wellbeing.
Positive, real, life-changing moments.
And in a school year there are hundreds of them.
What a difference a school day makes.”
This manifesto underlines the importance of attending school – every day and every new week is a new opportunity for students to attend school every day and achieve 100% in order for them to maximise their learning.
Regular attendance to school is important for more than just attainment:
Attending school regularly (attendance above 90%) can facilitate positive peer relationships, which is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing.
As such, we hope that parents and carers whose children are taking casual, preventable odd days of absence, or ‘avoidable absence’ for no good reason, will embrace the spirit of the government’s campaign and support both school and their children by ensuring that these children attend school more regularly.
This means every day from now on, unless there is a valid, authorised reason not to.
We know and appreciate that a small number of children face greater barriers to attendance, such as those with long term medical needs or special educational needs and disabilities and we will continue to work with these individual children and families to overcome these barriers.
Please remember that you can check your child/rens attendance rate regularly on the My Child At School (MCAS) app.