Attendance Awards

Attendance Awards At DPS

We love to encourage good attendance amongst our pupils. Good attendance is one of the biggest factors in a child achieving his or her full potential from their educational experience.
While we do not want children to come into school if they are unwell we also encourage children and parents to try to ensure that they come in every day to be able to learn, enjoy meeting their friends and have all the great and wide-ranging experiences that we offer in school.

Term Attendance
Each school year is divided into three terms: Christmas, Easter and Summer. If a child has full attendance for a complete term then they receive a special certificate and also 50 House Points for their House.

Full Year Attendance
If a child does not miss a single day in a whole academic year then he/she will receive a very special 100% attendance certificate at a special Attendance Assembly held in September of the following school year. We often have ex-P7 children coming back to collect their certificates. We often have children collecting 'Multi-Year' certificates where they have had full attendance for 2, 3 or even up to 7 years. They also win 150 House Points for their House.

Full Attendance in Term 2 of 2025-26

Attendance Assembly at Downpatrick Primary School
64 children with 100% attendance in Term 2 (Easter Term) were honoured at a special assembly in Downpatrick Primary School.
Mr Niall Stevenson said, “It is wonderful for us as a school family to mark and celebrate these children. Achieving 100% attendance is a team effort and I should like to thank the children and especially their parents for treasuring the gift of education and ensuring that their child gets to school every morning.”
He continued, “I am especially pleased that every one of our 13 classes across the main school and the Learning Support Centre and our Special Provision - Early Years – Foundation classes had at least one pupil who had not missed a day all term. The school is delighted to be increasing its attendance rates year by year as this is a critical factor for children to achieve their full potential. The children have also won House Points towards our School House Competition which runs to June each year.”