Dear Parents and Caregivers,

E.R.O and MINISTRY of EDUCATION FOCUS ON ATTENDANCE

The Ministry of Education and E.R.O are particularly interested in falling attendance in schools following COVID-19. Attendance at school correlates with wellbeing and academic success. One study of New Zealand secondary schools showed that students who are absent even 5-10% of the time (still considered “regular” attendance) obtain fewer NCEA credits than those with slightly higher attendance. In the same way, increased absence from school correlates with increases in schoolwork related anxiety, a decreased sense of belonging, increased exposure to bullying, racism and a decline in overall motivation.

Currently, only 67% of our students attend school regularly (attending 90% or more of the time). This means that almost a third of students are at risk of lower academic success and decreased socio-emotional wellbeing.

In a typical term, an average student can be absent for a variety of reasons. Consider the impacts of the following on your child’s attendance and subsequent learning and wellbeing:

• 5 days holiday during term time
• 3 days illness
• 2 studying at home.

In this example, these 10 days of absence in a term result in your child having an 80% attendance rate.

The school has clear policies and procedures for managing student attendance. In addition to these, the Ministry has directed schools to take specific action relating to student absence from school. The ELT will enact the following initiatives to improve your visibility over your child’s attendance at school. In the first instance:

• A notification email from your child’s LifeLab or Homeroom teacher when your child has 5 days unjustified absence from school.

• A notification email from your child’s LifeLab or Homeroom teacher when attendance drops below 90%. 90% is the threshold for regular attendance at school and is the target rate of attendance we are aiming for as a school. We will be focusing on those students most at risk initially beginning with those with 80% attendance or less.

For our most at risk students please expect regular follow-up conversations, meetings and referrals enlisting the support of external agencies to help see improvement in your child’s attendance.

An additional measure taken by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) is:

• Reporting on absences as part of the Semester 2 report formal student report. This will reflect all absences, irrespective of whether it is justified or otherwise.

Our target for 2023 is to achieve 85% regular attendance across the school. Presently we are significantly below this. Please support us as we continue to deliver world class Christian Education.

A Note about Unjustified Absence

For you information, unjustified absence is time away from school that does not meet the Ministry of Education legal parameters for students not being at school. Some unjustified absence may be explained by you as parents but is not considered a justifiable reason for not attending school. Common examples of this include: 

• Visiting relatives
• Taking a day off for a birthday 
• Family appointments 
• Holidays during term time.

These types of absences show as ‘E’ (Explained, but unjustified) on your child’s KAMAR records. 

Other types of unjustified absence are those where no valid explanation is provided. Common examples of this include: 

• Sleeping in 
• Traffic 
• Finishing an assignment 
• Didn’t feel like coming to school.  

This type of absence is coded at ‘T’ (Truant) on your child’s KAMAR records. 

Should you see a ‘?’ on KAMAR, this means that the school does not have a reason, justified, explained or otherwise as to why your child is not at school.  Please contact the attendance officer to remedy this immediately.

You can access KAMAR from our Quick Links on the school website. Please email the school if you do not have a password. 

Thank you for your support in this matter.

Regards,

Chris Martin 
Associate Principal