News & Headteacher Blogs

Attendance and the habits that last

As a school, we want every student to achieve as much as they possibly can. Exam results are a big part of that, of course, but we also care about the kind of people our students are growing into, and in particular whether they become people others can rely on.

Integrity is one of our CREARCI values, and when we talk about it with students we usually describe it as doing the right thing when it isn't the easiest thing. For a teenager on a dark winter morning, that can be as simple as getting out of bed, coming in and walking into a lesson they find difficult. Small as those moments are, that is where the habit begins.

This is why attendance matters so much to us.  An ordinary school day teaches a great deal beyond the subjects on the timetable: turning up when you said you would, working alongside people you didn't choose, and carrying on when something has or hasn't gone well. Students will forget most of what happened in Period 3 on a Tuesday in years to come, but those habits tend to stay with them.

Employers say much the same. When they talk to us about what they look for in young people, they rarely start with grades. They want people who arrive on time, do what they said they would, get on with colleagues and can be trusted to do a good job. None of that appears overnight when someone writes their first CV; it builds up gradually over the years they spend with us.

Children do get ill, and when they are genuinely unwell they should stay at home until they have properly recovered. When they are well enough to be in school, though, each day makes a difference. A missed lesson means more than missed content. It might be the discussion where an idea finally made sense, a practical that can't easily be repeated, or the chance to answer a question and feel a little more confident.

Most of these habits are formed on ordinary days, through small decisions that nobody really notices at the time. Before long our students will be trusted with a job, relied on by colleagues and counted on by customers and friends, and the reliability that earns that trust starts here.

We are grateful to be working alongside you, as parents and carers, in helping your children build their lives.