Attendance

Currently only 45% of NZ students attend school regularly (more than 90% attendance).

All schools are required to monitor attendance and report this to the Ministry of Education.  At the end of each term this data is then reported back to each school and collated nationwide.

Our school board and staff are keen to try and boost our own attendance levels back up to what they were in “pre-Covid times”. 

As part of our efforts we will share our termly attendance results with our school community.

At Te Ao Mārama our attendance for Term 2 was:

The categories and codes above are set by the Ministry of Education.  An ‘Unjustified Absence’ is recorded when a student is away from school and while it may be explained it doesn’t meet the Ministry guidelines (some examples are absence due to birthdays, trips/holidays in term-time, non-school related events etc)

Illness and medical absences will always occur and these are significantly higher across the country since Covid-19.  This is always a tricky one, as we definitely want to see our tamariki at school, but….not if they are unwell and potentially can pass on any bugs to other students and staff.  This web link has the key advice, and our school staff try and follow these guidelines.

https://info.health.nz/pregnancy-children/childhood-conditions/knowing-if-your-child-is-well-enough-to-go-to-school-guidance-for-parents

We also encourage families to book holidays in the 12 weeks of term breaks if at all possible as a high % of our absences do relate to students being away on holiday during term time.  We of course appreciate and empathise that many of our students have extended family overseas and this is not always possible.

We will continue to share our attendance information, and our aim is to work closely with our whānau to try and lift our rates as high as we possibly can.

He waka eke now ~ we are all in this together