The Ministry of Education released an "Attendance and Engagement Strategy" in 2022. It aims to increase attendance and engagement by focusing on ākonga being present, participating and progressing.
Some parents and whānau of Year 10 students will be aware of our recent focus on increasing school attendance for a small group of students. We are happy to report that we have seen some positive changes in this area. We are now looking to extend this to all Year 10 students with a weekly attendance update.
From Friday 13th October, and every Friday after that, Year 10 parents and whānau can expect to get a brief email with a summary of their child’s attendance that week. The codes will be explained in the printout provided, along with email addresses of who to contact if you have any concerns.
We are hoping that this will be a prompt for families to discuss and encourage attendance with their Year 10 children, with the hope to increase attendance overall. However, we do understand that sometimes these conversations can be stressful, so if there is any support you would like around your child’s attendance, please get in touch with their tutor in the first instance, or with the Simpson House team, or the Year 10 Year Advisor, Anna Williams, as appropriate.
Depending on the success of this pilot, we may also look to send this out to other year groups in 2024.
Further information on the MOE's Attendance & Engagement Strategy can be found here.