Did you know that a child who misses 2 days of school each month has missed out on an entire month of instruction by the end of the school year? Even 1 day each month makes up 2 full weeks of missed opportunities to learn and succeed! Marsh Fork Elementary’s goal is to have 95% average attendance each month of the 2022-23 school year!
Last year we had over 45% of our students that were chronically absent, that was 74 students! That means that they missed 18 days or more! Yes, some absences are due to Covid, but those weren’t even included in this data! We all know that some absences are unavoidable, but think back, were there days that your child could have been in school but wasn’t?
Poor attendance doesn’t only effect the student that misses. All of the other students have to wait while that student is getting caught up, and they lose instructional time as well. That loss in time results in less opportunities to learn and grow! For the whole class! Also, it is very difficult for an absent child to truly learn what was taught through doing make-up work, without the benefit of instruction and assistance.
How can we make a change in our school’s attendance? We are starting with a hero! An Attendance HERO! Every child has the chance to be an attendance HERO, by being:
Here!
Every day!
Ready!
On time!
There will be many activities and celebrations around great attendance this year! We don’t want anyone to miss out!
We are even looking for a reduction in tardies and sign outs with our “No Tardy Taters!” Each class will have a Mr. Potato Head and they can add pieces, each time the class is on time and stays all day! After 10 days, they will have fully completed the “No Tardy Tater!” Then the class will select a treat or incentive, and start again.
We are looking forward to having a great school year, and can’t wait to work with all of our families to make a way for all of our students to become leaders to succeed!