Nau mai, hōki mai ki te Kura Takawaenga o Whangārei: Term 1, Wiki 8.

Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa e nga māna, e nga reo huri noa tō tātou takiwā e korowai nei i te aroha o Te Parawhau o Ngāti Kāhu o Torongare. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

The amazingly positive and settled start to the school year has meant the term is racing by. Already we are over the midpoint of the term and have two weeks to go before the term holidays. The class cultures are fast developing into the friendly and caring atmosphere that we expect and will set the students up for success. A huge thank you to the amazing nga kaimahi that work hard every day to make sure your tamariki are receiving the best quality educational experiences on a daily basis.

Noho Marae experience has been cancelled for this term.  We are so pouri as we have been planning this experience for our tamariki ma for 3 years and just when we thought it was going to occur, Whakapara Marae has been struck with another challenge, that being they have been notified that they will have no power from Monday 20 March onwards.  Our focus for the Noho Marae was based around  whakawhanaungatanga and Turangatira: building strong relationships and understanding where they stand confidently, knowing who they are and where they have come from.  Unfortunately our tamariki will not have this experience term 1.  We are, however, looking at moving our Noho Marae experiences hopefully to term 4.  We are determined that our students have a chance to be 'at camp'.   Nga mihi ki a koe Whaea Eden for all of your planning and organisation for thus far.   We appreciate your commitment to this kaupapa.  

ERO's View on Attendance: Missing Out - Why Aren't Our Children Going to School?

ERO chose a random sample of 400 schools and asked parents and caregivers about their views on attendance. Here is the executive summary of their findings.  Attendance is when learners are at school and in the class they are supposed to be at. If learners miss a week or more of school in a term, they have ‘non-regular attendance’. Learners who miss a week each term will have missed out on more than a year of schooling by the time they are 16.   In New Zealand, learners are expected to attend school every day the school is open and yet many don’t.  New Zealand has lower attendance than other countries and alarmingly attendance is falling.

Why are learners missing school?

1. Many parents and students do not understand the importance of going to school.

Understanding the importance of attendance is critical. We found that:

• four in 10 parents (41%) are comfortable with their child missing more than a week of school a term, or almost a year of their schooling by the time they are 16
• a third of learners (33 %) don’t think going to school every day is that important
• nearly a quarter (22 %) of students do not think school is that important for their futures.

Parents told us they thought regular attendance was less important in primary school, but this is not the case. Primary school provides foundation learning and missing school in primary school is linked with poor attendance in secondary school.

2. Many parents and students are choosing to prioritise other things.

The school needs to be a priority if we are to reverse the decline in attendance. We found that parents often prioritise other things:

• two-thirds of parents (67%) would keep their children home for a family, cultural, or special event
• a third of parents (35%) would take children out of school for a holiday of a week or more or to participate in a sporting event (41%)
• 12% would keep children home for their birthday.

Parents of primary-aged learners or from rural areas are more likely to support missing school to go on a holiday. Māori (81%) and Pacific (71%) parents are more likely to keep their child out of school to attend family cultural events.

Learners also miss school due to other priorities. Learners said they want to miss school because they:

• have more enjoyable things to do at home (33%)
• have whānau, cultural, or special events during school time (17%)
• have responsibilities to look after sick or younger whānau and family members (8%).

3. Learners face real barriers to going to school.

To shift attendance, we need to understand and overcome barriers to going to school. The study was during the peak of the Omicron outbreak, so illness and injury was by far the most common barrier to school attendance identified by parents and learners. Seventy-six percent of parents said they had kept their child home in the past term for illness or injury.

We also found that:

• nearly half of the parents would keep their child out of school for mental health challenges (46%)
• more than a third would keep their child out of school to avoid bullying (38 %)
• one in 10 would keep their child out of school because the child is tired.

Learners face barriers to school attendance:

• for over a third of learners (35%) not liking getting up in the morning/tired was a barrier for them attending school
• for nearly one in five learners (17% not liking at least one of their teachers was a barrier for them attending school
• being bullied or picked on at school (10%) and not liking people in their class (15%) are also barriers for learners to attend school.

4. Some groups of parents and learners face more barriers than others.

To improve attendance we need to understand the different barriers learners face.

Māori and Pacific parents are more likely to keep their child out of school due to bullying, illness, and mental health challenges.

Older learners (Year 11-13) are less engaged in school and more likely to want to miss school because they aren’t interested in what is taught.

Learners in low decile schools are more likely to think it was important to go to school every day. However, parents of learners in low decile schools face more challenges with transport or their children not having all the equipment/resources they need to go to school. While learners in high decile schools have higher attendance, they are less motivated to go to school if they have more enjoyable things to do at home.

Disabled learners have multiple barriers to attendance and stay at home more because they can’t participate in an activity, don’t have the support or equipment to participate, have physical and mental health challenges, are bullied, and face challenges with transport.

Why do learners go to school?

1. Relationships and the future were the biggest motivators for learners to attend school.

By understanding what motivates learners to go to school we can be more effective in raising attendance. The top motivators that make learners want to go to school are:

• getting to see and spend time with friends (80%)
• seeing how the school will help in their future (54%)
• liking at least one of their teachers (41%).

2. Different groups of learners have different motivators.

We need to tailor our approaches to different learners. We found that:

• participating in sports and clubs is more motivating for Māori learners, Pacific learners, and learners from low-decile schools to attend school
• having an adult they trust is more motivating for primary learners, disabled learners, and learners from low-decile schools
• Pacific learners are more motivated to go to school to make their whānau proud of them
• fewer Māori learners and disabled learners are motivated by being able to see the relevance of school to their future.

Learners who told us they had regular attendance were more motivated to go to school because they liked or were interested in what was being taught and could see how school was relevant to their future. Learners who told us they had non-regular attendance are more motivated to go to school because they would get into trouble if they didn’t go.

How can we increase attendance?

In summary, coming to school is critical for our tamariki's future.  The evidence is clear that every day of school matters and missing school leads to lower achievement. 

We at WIS would love every one of our students to come to school daily.  We are here to support Whānau in any way we can.  Please reach out to see if we can support you to make sure your tamariki attend school daily.  In the meantime, we are so proud that we are averaging 89% attendance weekly.  Tau ke e te Whānau.  Attached is an ERO guide for parents and caregivers.  It has some useful ideas about how to engage your tamariki in the conversation about going to school on a daily basis.

Kia mohio ko tatou tahi - let's be clever together.

Kia pai tou ra. Have a great day.

Ma te wa, na Hayley Read. Tumuaki/Principal of the best school in Whangārei with the coolest students (especially those who are demonstrating our school’s vision: mā te whanaungatanga, kā whai matauranga te akonga, ka tū rangatira).

                             Success Crowns Effort