How can we work together to improve attendance at school?

You may not realise that a child who misses school for a week each term (or one day a fortnight), will have missed out on a year of schooling by the time they are 16.

Nationally, attendance trends are low, and although at Mānuka School we are above the national average, we are continuously monitoring, tracking, and trying to improve our attendance rates. As a whole school, our average attendance is currently in the 85-90% band, but that’s not the story for everyone. Whilst attendance figures are concerning, they are not entirely surprising, seeing the national trend following the pandemic and the issues it exacerbated. Non-attendance can be for many complex and varied reasons, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. As part of the national response to help children go to school more regularly, participate, and make progress, we are looking at the reasons children are absent, arriving late, or leaving early.

We would like to work with you, the whānau, to see what we can do to increase the number of days students attend school.

Attendance every day matters. 

Each day is filled with learning moments, fun moments, sporting moments, cultural moments, connection moments, and all those in-between little moments that make school too big to miss. As well as helping achievement progress, being at school helps children and young people develop and strengthen their social, cultural, and mental wellbeing.

We recognise that sometimes school can be a cause of anxiety for children but we ask that you work with us, and communicate what is going on for your child so that together we can find a solution.

Going to school every day is important.

If your child regularly misses a day, a week, comes in late, or leaves early, then they miss out on something. Whilst we know that ‘life can get in the way’ of a routine, school should remain a top priority.  Those missing school more frequently are likely to have bigger gaps in their learning and may find it harder to reconnect with friends.

Coming into school late may mean that students miss vital instructional information for the day, their literacy or maths groups with the teacher, making connections with their peers and teacher before school, settling in for the day and getting prepared. Leaving early also means a student misses out on something, and everything missed needs catching up on at some point. This can place extra anxiety on a child and trying to complete work at home can be difficult without teacher instruction and support.

For your information:

Regular attendance: students with over 90% attendance (missing fewer than five days of school in a standard 10-week term) 

Irregular absence: students with more than 80% and up to 90% attendance (students missing 5 – 9 ½ days of a standard term) 

Moderate absence: students with more than 70% and up to 80% attendance (missing 10 – 14 ½ days of school in a term) 

Chronic absence: students 70% attendance or less (missing 15 days or more of school in a term)

You can check out your child’s attendance on the Edge parent portal.  A typical ten week term would have 100 half days but there may be some statutory holidays in there.

Did you know?

Being sick and attending a funeral/tangi are the only justifiable reasons for not being at school. Whilst we understand overseas holidays to see whānau (especially post Covid) are often occurring in term time and have their own benefits, if this is coupled with some Mondays after a busy weekend, a Friday for a long weekend, a birthday at home, going home when a sibling is sick, - it’s easy to add up the days without realising.

What can we do?

First of all, it’s about raising the issue so we can discuss it openly and work together to find solutions.

Here is Mānuka School’s attendance strategy