Wellbeing Bite - Attendance
High attendance at school correlates strongly with positive socialisation, engagement with learning, stronger academic achievement, and general wellbeing. We are fortunate that most students at Howick Intermediate School have good attendance levels. However, we are now noticing that many do not meet the ‘over 90% attendance’ which is the government criteria for ‘regualr attendance’. and give themselves the best opportunities to achieve great results.
Student Categories | Student with | Equivalent to |
Regular attendance | over 90% attendance | Missing fewer than 5 days across a term |
Irregular absence | More than 80% and up to 90% attendance | Absent between 5 and 9 days across a term |
Moderate absence | more than 70% and up to 80% attendance | Absent between10 and 14.5 days across a term |
Chronic absence | 70% attendance or less | Absent for 15 days or more across a school term |
Legal Requirements:
• Under The Education Act (2022) – “the Act” - all students enrolled at a school must attend when it is open for instruction unless there is a justified reason, such as sickness, sudden and serious illness of a parent, or other equally serious situation that means a student cannot attend.
• This is true for all students enrolled at the Howick Intermediate as the school has a legal responsibility to ‘take all reasonable steps to ensure the attendance of students enrolled at its school’ This means the School must follow up absences and lateness with appropriate interventions.
• Parents/guardians are responsible for their child’s attendance at school, and it is an offence if this responsibility is not met for students under the age of 16 In situations where a parent/guardian condones (by lack of action or explicit approval) the absence of a child, then there may be a prosecution, although this is a last resort.
• The other key legal requirement for the School is the need to keep accurate records of attendance.
• Attendance rates are reported as a percentage of half days over the number of half days open.
• “Regular attendance” The Ministry of Education guidelines consider a student to be ‘regularly attending’ if their attendance is above 90% or more. Below 90%, a student is ‘not regularly attending’ school. While 90% is regular it still means a student misses an average of 1 in 10 days of school, which equates to almost 100 hours of lost learning time. The chart below illustrates this.
The School is very concerned if attendance falls below 90%, as students learning, achievement, and overall wellbeing are negatively affected by lower attendance.
The School does acknowledge that exceptional circumstances may affect attendance, and it is vital that we maintain open communication about the reasons for absence. For extended periods of absence, verified medical or other professional documentation is required.
Advising of, and Explaining Absences
• Absence from School for medical or other reasons must be accounted for by caregivers, preferably in advance, or other verifiable communication within 24 hours of the student returning to school.
• Whenever possible, parents/caregivers are encouraged to advise the School of an impending absence or lateness ahead of time. When this is not possible, then parents/caregivers are asked to inform the School as soon as possible after the event (e.g. by phone or email on the day of a student’s illness, or by note/email on the first day when the student returns to school).
• To advise of an absence: Please email: absences@howickint.school.nz Please provide the student’s name, class, and the date of and reason for, the absence. If no reason is provided, or the reason is not justified according to the Act, it is recorded as an explained, but unjustified, absence.
• Extended medical absences of over 3 days should be referred to a GP for the health and wellbeing of a student and therefore a medical certificate should be provided to the School. In circumstances where this is not possible, parents/caregivers are asked to contact the School to explain.
• Absence notifications: Primary Caregiver One (whoever is listed as the first contact) of students who are absent without explanation will receive an SMS (text) notification advising of this and asking for an explanation by replying. Please ensure you reply. The School will update records accordingly. If the answer to the text has no reason provided, then the absence will be explained but cannot justified.
• Note: An unexplained absence is automatically converted into truancy and followed up accordingly
Punctuality (at the start of the day)
• Being on time means getting the most from lessons and will typically mean a student is ready to learn. This means aiming to arrive 10-15 minutes before the scheduled start of the day and being ready to learn with all the right materials.
• A student who is late to school may not be ready to learn, will miss instructions, and may disrupt the class on entry. Every minute counts. If a student is absent 5 minutes once a week that is equivalent to missing 1.5 hours of instruction. Being late by 5 minutes once a day adds up to 16 hours (or 3 days) of lost instructional time.
• Students arriving late to school because of tardiness or before-school appointments must sign in at the School office. The office will record the lateness and record the time and note if the reason is justified (for example a dental/medical appointment or unjustified (for example, catching a later bus).
• The School is aware that occasionally other circumstances cause lateness outside of the control of the student or parent/guardian. This is expected to be a rare event, but in such circumstances, please provide a suitable explanation to the office. This will be recorded by the office.
This table shows the effects of being late. Please note that this table is for a 8:45 start time, however, at Howick Intermediate School we start the day at 8:35, so the results of being late are even more concerning.
