We approach the half-term break with what has been a very busy week and also a week that has been severely disrupted by absence. For whatever reason, our usual high levels of attendance have ‘fallen of a cliff’ this week to the point where the normal, hugely important end of term routines have been very much hampered,
The last week of any half-term/term is the one in which staff and children wrap-up the units of learning and ‘mop up’ any unfinished tasks, gaps in children’s skills and knowledge or incomplete learning. This gives them an assessment picture on which to base the following half-term. There is also a lot of new learning still going on.
At times this week, we have had over 60 children off, disproportionately in Reception and Key Stage One, where some classes have had ten children off at a time. An example of the real impact of this is that a child off in Year One will have missed, amongst other things:
the introduction to their very first Phase Five Phonics sounds,
two important new concepts in Science,
a visit to Parkdale Pines for some learning through discovery
their first assessed independent writing (for a classroom display)
and the last two chapters of the story book they have been reading for weeks and on which the entirety of their English next half-term is based
It would be a similar story in any year group, including Reception, where some vital Phonics has been taught this week. There is no ‘running the clock down’ to the break. Every day is a full-on teaching day.
We have no capacity whatsoever these days to provide extra adults to support with catching up on the teaching and/or assessment, so the children missing out on this type of learning will be disadvantaged..
We appreciate that there is a lot of illness around at this time of year, but really do urge that children are present as much as they possibly can be – even if that means with a cough, sniffle or other minor ailment.