There is no denying that we would like every child to be in school every day that they are well and able to do so. There is a big however though...

Since March 2020, attendance in school has needed to look different and attendance figures this year, for all children in the school (and country and indeed the world), will not look like regular figures. 

Whilst some children may have been in school throughout the lockdowns, many families/children were requested to stay at home or had to stay at home for shielding reasons. We know that for a high proportion of you, there was no choice but to do what you could at home and join in the daily remote education whenever possible. 

We understand that your attendance figure this year will therefore look different. 100% isn't going to be possible and indeed 60% might be quite astoundingly positive given the unprecedented situation that we have all found ourselves in!

We cannot change the attendance figures on Arbor because the government needs to know how many children were able to attend school during the lockdown period, but at the same time, we do not see working from home as absence in the regular way and we are not suggesting that families and their children didn't work hard. For this reason, please don't worry about the attendance figures this year.  All children that we required to work from home will have similar figures - it is a feature of lockdown that we expect and understand.