MHES Fab Friday Winner

Attendance Matters! Even on Fridays! That is the message that McNary administrators and teachers have been focusing on.

The importance of attendance was recently emphasized in a video made by McNary Leadership students. Now, Principal Nicole Coyle and Vice Principal Tim Young have created a campaign called Fab Fridays. The leaders had noticed that attendance on Fridays was quite a bit lower at their school than on Monday through Thursday. So, they came up with a plan to communicate to students (and hopefully, their parents) the importance of attending school every day, including Friday.

Fab Fridays is a school-wide effort. On Friday mornings, teachers are intentional about welcoming kids to school on the playground before school starts. Young wears a funny hat every Friday and over the school’s PA system, he announces the attendance rate from the Friday before so everyone can track the progress being made week to week. Also, in the classrooms on Friday morning, each student who is there that day receives a ticket which is entered into a drawing. One student is chosen each Friday to have lunch with Young, and the winner can invite three friends, too.

“We are trying to come up with some fun incentives so kids will really make an effort to be here on Fridays. Crucial core reading and math instruction happens on Fridays just like it does the other four days of the week, and that’s what we want our students and parents to understand,” Vice Principal Young said.

The first Fab Friday, second grader Andy was the winner and brought three of his friends to eat with Young. “I was so happy when I won, and I told my mom and dad and they were happy, too. It was exciting,” Andy said. “I can’t miss school on Fridays because you learn a lot.” Young said when he went to get Andy and his friends on the playground to have lunch with him, all four of the students came running, they were so excited.

The second Fab Friday winner was kindergartner Briella and the third week was third grader Henry.

Attendance figures on Fridays have been 87%, 90% and 89%. McNary Heights overall attendance has been averaging 80-85% Monday through Thursday and less than 80% on Fridays before the campaign. “This is something we wanted to try, and we hope the numbers continue to improve and our students continue to have fun with it,” Young said.