Every minute counts ….
At Thomas Hassall we value learning and love witnessing growth in students’ understanding. This growth can be stunted due to absence. We know children become sick and need time off College to rest and recover.
However, repeated lateness and unexplained days off school have an evidence-based impact on children’s education.
Many parents may not realise that when a child is late to College, he or she often feels behind right from the start of the day in terms of organisation and worried about catching up the missed learning. This may lead to children feeling anxious about the day ahead. Even though the teacher will most certainly repeat the instructions for the first lesson, children who are late miss the opportunity for class discussions where ideas and different strategies are tried and tested and where peer to peer learning takes place.
The curriculum is full and there is no time to waste. Learning begins at 8:20am. As a College, we urge parents to partner with us to maximise children’s learning opportunities and be committed to having students on time at the start of the day.
Simply put, if a child is ‘only’ 10 minutes late each day, this equates to 500 minutes per term which is approximately 6 days of lost learning over the year. Every minute certainly counts.