An Important Key to Your Child’s Success
Research shows that children with consistent school attendance learn more. If pupils are to fully benefit from the many opportunities schools offer them, regular school attendance is vital. A student who is 10 minutes late every day will miss 30 hours of instruction during the year a significant academic loss. Children who are late or absent can copy notes or make up an assignment, but they can never recover what is most important: the discussion, the questions, the explanations by the teacher and the thinking that makes learning come alive. While punctuality will promote learning, arriving late to school can also be very disruptive for the child, the teacher, and the other pupils in the class.
A child’s success in school and ultimately in life depends on having a solid educational background, one that can only be gained through punctuality and regular school attendance. When the child grows up he will quickly learn that employers seek reliable, dependable and responsible people to fill employment positions.
Regular attendance at school is also important in promoting social development and enabling students to keep up to date with the workload. Developing positive attendance and timekeeping habits at a young age will serve the child well throughout his/her life.
How Parents Can Improve a Child’s School Attendance and Punctuality
- Avoid scheduling family trips or doctor appointments during school hours.
- Make sure your child stays healthy by eating nutritious food and getting enough exercise.
- Establish a regular bedtime to ensure that your child gets a good night’s sleep, awakes rested the next morning and has enough time to prepare for school.
- Don’t accept excuses for why your child “must” miss or be late for school.
- Discuss with your child what happened at school each day.
- Support school rules and consequences for being tardy.
- Show your child why education is important. Give specific examples of how education helps people succeed.
- Lead by example. If children see parents taking off work for no real reason, and coming late for scheduled appointments, they may expect to be able to do the same thing.
- Research shows that attendance is the single most important factor in school success.
In the end our children will be best served when they . . .
- Attend school regularly
- Arrive to school on time
- Are ready and prepared to learn