You can check your child's attendance on Hero.

ERO (Education Review Office) recently published their findings on school attendance across New Zealand. Below is some of their main findings. You can read the whole article here.

The results from ERO's research show that Aotearoa New Zealand has consistently lower attendance rates than other countries. This is concerning, because the evidence is clear that regular attendance is really important for learning, wellbeing, and life outcomes.

• The regular attendance rate for New Zealand was forty percent in 2022.
• The rate for Australia was fifty percent in 2022.
• The rate for United Kingdom was eighty seven percent in 2022/2021.

Regular attendance is defined as attending school more than 90% of the time. 90% still allows for 5 absences per term.

The Ministry consider:

• irregular absence to be attending school 80% - 90% of the time (1-2 days absence out of 10 school days, i.e., a fortnight)

• moderate absence to be attending school 70% - 80% of the time (2-3 days absence out of 10 school days, i.e., a fortnight)

• chronic absence to be attending school 70% and less of the time (3 or less days absence out of 10 school days, i.e., a fortnight)

Declining attendance is seen across all school types and for all ethnicities.

It all adds up. If your child is attending school 90% of the time, they miss a week of school a term which means they will have missed out on a year of schooling by the time they are 16!

So what does attendance look like at Halswell?

Analysis of Term 1 school wide attendance data shows that  75% of our students are attending school 90% (regularly) of the time. How can you help?

Check your child's attendance rate on Hero. Where are they sitting? Are they attending school regularly? 

Read ERO's Guide for Parents and Whānau. This gives some helpful advice.