Weston's Positive Attendance Program
In January of 2008, Weston implemented a proactive and positive campaign to improve school attendance and address frequent tardiness which has increased dramatically over the past year. Our goal at Weston, is to instill pride in our students for taking responsibility and caring about their education.
The first step in any positive promotion is knowledge and acknowledgement. We regularly speak to the students about the value of a good and consistent education, and the long term importance of developing appropriate habits and a strong sense of responsibility and commitment. There is so much learning that takes place in just one day that even missing 10 or 15 minutes at the beginning of the day has a negative and cumulative impact.
Obviously, valid absences due to illness, late buses and doctor appointments are unavoidable but absences of convenience and tardiness serve only to foster future absences and continued tardiness. These are not the behaviors we wish to see turn into habits. Instead, we wish to promote habits that will lead to life long success.
At Weston, we acknowledge positive role models daily, weekly, monthly and yearly through positive reinforcement of perfect attendance. Multiple opportunities to achieve perfect attendance allow every student an opportunity to succeed. Perfect attendance will be defined as students who have no absences and have not been late. Doctor appointments that require dismissal from school will not impact attendance. On a regular basis, classes with perfect attendance will be recognized during the end of the day announcements. Weekly, we will present each class with perfect attendance certificates recognizing their efforts. If a class has successfully completed a month of perfect attendance each student will receive a Weston perfect attendance pin. We will also be looking to recognize individual students who have perfect attendance by trimesters. All these promotions will also have an educational component. Each classroom will graph their progress and use mathematical concepts in conjunction with their numbers. School-wide we will have a highly visible bulletin board charting our anticipated success.
It is our hope that we will see an improved awareness about the importance of attendance by students and parents and that the students respond to the positive reinforcement. This is the time in your child’s education to be proactive. We look forward to your cooperation and as your child begins to be recognized for their attendance please acknowledge and celebrate their success at home.