We are at the end of a fantastic term absolutely jam packed full of fun, nurturing, learning, making mistakes, and growing. It has been a busy time, and our tamariki are lucky to experience such a rich learning environment. Your child’s regular attendance can make a huge difference to the amount of benefit they experience from everything on offer at Māpua School.

The Ministry of Education target for regular attendance is 90%. That equates to attending school 9 out of 10 school days, or 5 days absence per term. Our August/September attendance data shows that only 44% of our students are achieving this level of attendance!

One factor impacting our student attendance is the taking of holidays during term time. We understand that there is not always flexibility about when whānau can take a holiday, and that many people have family overseas and connection is important. However, when you add an extended holiday during term time to illness absence, long weekends taken during term time, or time taken off school for special occasions it can add up to absence levels which do have a significant impact on progress for individual students.

Our teachers’ focus is on planning, teaching and assessing classroom programmes. We do not set work for students who are away on holiday during term time, and we are unable to provide “catch up” work or support on their return.

We are lucky to have access to a great attendance service as part of the Motueka Kahui Ako. A referral to the service gives whānau access to support from attendance officers who are there to help and support families who are having difficulty getting their young people to school. If you are struggling to get your child attending regularly and would like support, please let me know.

As well as regular attendance, it is vital that students get to school on time. When they arrive late, they have to face entering a classroom where the morning routines have already started and everyone knows what is going on - except them. Starting the day on the back foot is hard! As adults, how many of us like walking into a room full of people where a meeting is already in full swing and everyone knows what is happening except you? Not me, that’s for sure! When our tamariki are late for school, this is the exact scenario we are asking them to start their day with. Things like making lunches the night before, getting up 10 minutes earlier, having a tick chart for morning jobs so children can self manage can all help make the morning smoother.

In short, if you get your children to school regularly and on time, we can do our part of providing a rich and engaging programme to support their learning.

Wishing you all a fantastic holiday break with your children. We’ll welcome everyone back on Monday 9 October (ready for a 8:50 am start) for an exciting Term 4, which will kick off with the final weeks of preparation for our whole school production “Pirates of the Curry Bean”. It’s going to be amazing!

Te Piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau

The way we teach our children will influence the way they grow

Ngā Mihi Aroha

Sharon