Attendance

Attendance at school is crucially important to your child’s learning, confidence and sense of belonging. We value the partnership we have with you in helping your child to reach their potential.

Here are some important facts about attendance that we would like to bring to your attention.

  • The school monitors the attendance of all students on a daily basis. We record the reasons for absence and code them according to Ministry directives, for example illness, justified absence due to extenuating circumstances or explained but unjustified.
  • Any student whose attendance drops below 90% is a deep concern to us. This works at 10 days per year, or 2 and half days a term. If your child does indeed have 10 days off every year, when they finish their tenth year at school, this would mean they would have had a whole term off school in this time. 20 days a year or 5 days a term would be two terms or half a year.
  • We ask that unless your child is unwell or their attendance is impossible due to a family emergency or circumstances outside your control that you do your utmost to send your child to school. This is compliance with the law and means that your child can make the most of being at school.
  • If you do not explain your child’s absence, they are recorded as truant. You MUST contact us every time your child is not at school and give us the reason.
  • Persistent lateness is also dealt with in the same way as poor attendance is dealt with.
  • There is a direct link between poor attendance and poor achievement.

Some examples of justified absence are:

  • Illness
  • Funeral/Tangi
  • One Day School.
  • Medical treatment offsite (for example a dentist visit)

Some examples of unjustified absence are:

  • having a day off for a birthday
  • family holidays
  • going shopping.

We have procedures in place for dealing with poor attendance. 

Attendance – What we do:

  • Text in the morning if we have not heard from you and your child is absent
  • Phone you if you do not text back
  • Code the absence in HERO (T=truant and will be the code if you do not tell us why your child is away)
  • Send a letter to request a meeting after 3 Truant absences 
  • Have a meeting/hui about barriers to attendance OR have a home visit 
  • Send a second letter and have a second hui if the absence repeats
  • Make an attendance service referral to the truancy officer if the issue is not resolved.

This is so that the school is compliant with the law.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU…

  • Send your child to school, keeping them home only if they are sick or you have a genuine family emergency. Also make sure they are at school on time. Vital learning can be missed when your children are late!
  • Contact the office if your child is unable to attend school, and explain the reason. The school will text you if there has been no contact prior to 9:15am, then phone you if they have not had a response by 10am.
  • If for any reason you need to take your child from school during school hours notify the school in plenty of time so that bus rolls can be adjusted.
  • If you are planning a holiday, obtain the appropriate forms from the office to apply to the principal for approval.
  • Where possible, make appointments outside of school hours.

Thank you for helping us work together to make sure our students are achieving to their potential!