You may have heard this week about the Government's plan to improve attendance rates at schools across New Zealand. Here is a summary of what is happening.

New Zealand attendance rates are low by national and international standards. Regular attendance, defined as being in school over 90 per cent of the time declined to 39.9 per cent in Term 2 2022. At the same time, England’s attendance rates were 75.1 per cent and the USA 70.3 per cent. Most recently (September 2023), New Zealand rates were only 45.9 per cent.

The Government is implementing the following changes: 

• Starting publishing of attendance data weekly from the second week of Term 2, 2024
• Rolling out a communications campaign to improve awareness of the importance of students attending school from Term 2 2024
• Updating public health guidance to help schools and parents to decide if a student is well enough to attend school
• Clarifying expectations around attendance to school boards.

The Associate Education Minister also intends to bring further proposals to Cabinet at a later date. 

What about here at Villa?

We want you, as parents and caregivers, to support us in our focus on increasing attendance in every class on every day. 

Here is a document that we have put together that summarises our relevant college policies and information. Some key takeaways from this document are that we expect parents to:  

• notify the school as soon as possible if their child is going to be late or absent for any reason
• arrange appointments and trips outside school hours or during school holidays where possible

Other key points

Leaving school grounds:

• Students are not allowed to leave the school during school hours unless permission is requested by parents/caregivers and given by the school. 
• The student must sign out at the student office. They must have a note signed by their teacher, or their parents/caregivers must have notified the student office. 
•  Attendance is entered every period into our Student Management System (SMS). 
• Ako teachers, Heads of House, and the Deputy Principal monitor all attendance. 

Sickness:

• If a student is going to be away for more than three days, parents need to notify the principal. If a sickness absence is for a period longer than three days, a medical certificate may be required. If the sickness absence is for a period longer than five days a medical certificate will be required.

Justified absence:

• If there’s a justified reason for absence (eg. illness, a funeral or tangihanga, or other approved reason at the discretion of the school), the principal may allow a student to be absent for up to five days.

Planned absence:

In the case of planned absences, (including overseas holidays) requests must be made to the principal at least one week before the planned event. The principal has the discretion to approve or deny requests, based on criteria including:

• the benefit to education for the student (including qualifications and experience of course providers as relevant)
• the length of time away from regular school programmes that the activity will require.
• it is not up to the school/staff to provide lessons or homework to make up for classes missed in these instances.
• if an absence is due to overseas travel or a family holiday, it will be coded G, which will appear as unjustified.
  

How to notify the College of an absence:

If your child cannot attend school, please inform the school as early as possible via:

1. College App (Search your App Store for ‘SchoolAppsNZ’, download, and set Villa Maria College as your default school.) Please include a clear reason for the absence.
2. Phone the college on 348 4165 (following the voice instructions to record the absence, including your daughter’s name and Ako).

Students with more than five days of unexplained absence will be contacted by the school for an explanation or invited for a whānau meeting if attendance becomes a concern.

Being late for school also represents missed learning opportunities. We encourage our students to be on time, as this is an excellent habit to reinforce for the world of work. 

The Pastoral Team works closely with many of our students and wider whānau in order to support attendance and as always, every young person is dealt with on a case-by-case basis with a focus on maintaining their mana and dignity.